Spiderman: Homecoming
by The Alpha Gray Wolf
Summary: Peter Parker has been Spiderman for several months and has fought all kinds of villains ranging from muggers to gangsters to gunmen, but one villain in particular that he meets is about to change his life forever when he targets his loved one. Set in an alternate universe on Earth-192322, acts as a parallel universe to the actual Spider-Man: Homecoming movies and its sequels.
1. I

**Disclaimer: I only own the stuff I made up. The rest belongs to Marvel, song artists, etc.**

**Starring Tom Holland as Peter/Spiderman**

**Peter Parker has been Spiderman for several months and has fought all kinds of villains ranging from muggers to gangsters to gunmen, but one villain in particular that he meets is about to change his life forever when he targets his loved one. Set in an alternate universe on Earth-192322, acts as a parallel universe to the actual **_**Spider-Man**_**: **_**Homecoming**_** movie and its sequels.**

* * *

It was not every day for fifteen-year-old Peter to take a field trip to Empire State University. Peter got up extra early and made sure he looked good. He combed through his chocolate brown hair, put contacts in his hazel eyes, put on a brown jacket with a hoodie over a gray shirt and put on a pair of blue jeans complete with black sneakers. He just had to look extra good; his crush was going with him on the field trip, along with his friends, Ned and Harry. He dashed down the stairs, saying hi to his middle-aged Aunt May and Uncle Ben before racing out the door. Before he could close it all the way, he heard his Uncle Ben saying how much he loved him.

Peter exclaimed without looking over his shoulder, "Love you too."

He closed the door and locked it with his personal key. Instead of getting a car ride to school, he took his more preferred route. His friend Harry Osborn, son of a very wealthy and successful businessman named Norman Osborn, CEO of a multinational corporation known as Oscorp, picked him up, actually. He raced down the street and Harry picked him up in his fancy Toyota 2018 and drove him to Midtown School of Science and Technology, a private school that only three percent of students from public school get to go to. At the front of the door, he found his socially awkward friend, Ned, waiting for him and Harry. The three of them walk into the crowded school to get to class.

"What's up, Ned?" Peter says to his friend, high-fiving him in the process.

"Nothing much, just waiting for you," Ned says dryly. "Can you believe that we are going to ESU? That's a college that I've dreamt of going to."

Harry tried to act modestly, something that he was not good at. "As prestigious as it sounds, I'd rather go somewhere that feels right for me. Somewhere like Culver University."

Peter was a little alarmed that Harry would pick somewhere far away. "Culver University? That's in Willowdale."

"I know." He was aware and unfazed of the distance. "I want to go there so I can study molecular biology and nanobiotechnology."

Peter has never even heard of that last word, but it sounded something that would be up to Harry's alley. He decided to joke with him and say, "Whoah, Harry, that's a big word even for you."

"Haha," he barely deflected.

"How does your dad feel about it?"

Harry had had a talk with his father about his decision for college and his answer was, "My dad wants me to study business administration as he did. He actually wants me to take over Oscorp for when he passes. He's like forty-eight years old." Harry was barely the same age as Peter. Same for Ned.

"Do you want to take over the business?"

"I don't know; I'm am still conflicted about that."

Peter patted his friend on the back. "Well, whatever decision you make, we will support you one hundred percent."

"What do you guys want to major in?"

"Well, I don't know about going to college," Peter tried to sound modest. "But I've always wanted to be a photographer."

Ned jumped and answered immediately, "I've always wanted to invent the world's number one supercomputer that can read minds and has feelings. So I guess I'll be majoring in engineering technology."

Peter and Harry barely understood a single word he said, but Peter replied, "Just be lucky that Mr. Harrington was nice enough to take us on a field trip to ESU. At least Flash ain't going." Peter couldn't think of anybody who liked Flash.

Ned tried to remember who else was going with them but drew a blank. "Do you know who's going beside us?"

Peter remembered the names of all of them. "The entire decathlon team: Liz Allan, Betty Brant, Cindy Moon, Quentin Beck, Max Dylan, Michelle Jones, and Gwen Stacy."

Just thinking of the name Gwen made Peter smile. Gwen was this one girl at MSST that Peter had a huge crush on since school started a month ago. He had trouble hiding it whenever he was around her, but he was extremely happy when he learned that Gwen had been chosen to do the ESU internship. He was lost for a second, and he had to be brought back to reality by his friends elbowing him in the ribs.

Harry noticed Peter was drifting off into space. "Are you okay?"

Peter snapped himself back into reality. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking is all."

Harry just stared at him with a confused look on his face and said nothing until, "Well, we got to get to class because the bus leave for ESU at eight-thirty and school starts at eight-fifteen."

Peter looked at his watch and saw that they only had five minutes to get to class. They each had the same first-hour teacher, so they jogged through the hallways together to get to class. Being coerced to sit through the first period for the first fifteen minutes of class before leaving on a single bus.

On the bus, Peter sat next to Ned and they were discussing this weird conspiracy theory that involved Empire State University.

"No," Peter denied in a grumbling voice to Ned, "I'm telling you, Ned, that ESU was not involved with that hospital collapse in Turkey last year. How can they even be remotely connected?"

"Dude, I'm telling you, there was a Dr. Warren that worked at the hospital and there is a Dr. Warren here at Empire State. I'm telling you, it's the same guy."

Ned shook his head and tried to convince Peter, "You do know that there are other people out there named Warren who also happened to be doctors?"

"He's right," a voice spoke in the seat beside them. Peter and Ned turned to see Michelle, who had paused in reading her book, look up at them to confirm Ned's theory. "You should definitely believe everything conspiracy theory you here. In the end, only the ones with open eyes will see the truth."

Peter looked at Ned with a confused brow before looking back at Michelle, "What would be the truth?"

"ESU is responsible for what happened to that hospital in Turkey." She turns back to her reading.

Just a few seats up, Max and Quentin sat together and were discussing their own thing.

"What seem people don't seem to realize," Max began, "Is that technology is man's best friend. Without all the stuff we invented, none of us would be living in this utopia we called the United States."

Quentin shook his head in disagreement, "You want to know the truth, Max? The truth is: Everything is an illusion. People fool themselves because they want to be fooled. Technology is just humanity's way of saying we are safe because we have invented it. Once people realize that, people will start to see how much of an illusion we live in. It's easy to fool people when they're already fooling themselves."

At the Empire State University college, the students smiled and chuckled upon seeing the massive university. A tall biochemist with thinning gray hair named Miles Warren approached the group from outside with his African-American wife, Monica. Miles greeted each of the students with a handshake, starting off with Peter's blond crush.

Miles took this opportunity to give a friendly introduction to the students who earned their visit here. "Good afternoon, students of MSST. My name is Miles Warren, and this is my beautiful wife, Monica. We are biochemists here at ESU and we will be your tour guides." He spots Quentin on his phone. "I can see I'm boring someone already."

The students chuckled and Harry patted Quentin to get his attention.

"Sorry, you're not boring me," Quentin apologized and turned off his cell.

Miles just chuckled as he came up with a joke. "If you could learn a lot on a phone, imagine what you can learn here at ESU. No free wi-fi."

The other students chuckled again until they realized that Miles was being serious. Michelle was totally cool with that because she had her book to keep her company and she wasn't really interested in what Miles had to say. "Our first stop is the archive lab, where we will show you what we do when we collect objects of unknown origin."

The ten students were lead into a big laboratory room fitted with all sorts of flasks with various colorful liquids and other objects that none of the students could identify until Miles identified them for them. "Over here, we have an unknown species of spiders."

He shows them a transparent box filled with a black web-like substance. A tiny black spider with a perfectly shaped hourglass on the back crawled on the glass. Miles went on to explain how this spider is one of a kind and currently, the only known one of its species. Peter tapped on the glass and the spider jumped off, seemingly in fear or agitation.

"He seems to like you, Peter," Miles kid.

Peter took a step back from the glass and turned to the biochemist. "Yeah, I have a natural talent of attracting ugly things." He realized what he said too late as he heard Miles' next sentence.

"Don't let your girlfriend hear you say that."

"I don't have a girlfriend."

Miles chuckles and walks away.

Peter looked from the spider box to other materials besides it. Materials like a yellow substance in a large flask called "Bane," a syringe filled with clear liquid substance dubbed "Chimera," some kind of contaminated blood in a jar with the title, "Ignis." The one thing Peter found to be the most disturbing one of the lot was a worm-like parasite crawling around in a Petri dish. The name of this worm was "Exspiravit."

"That's a cute spider," Gwen said offhandedly to Peter.

Gwen approached Peter from his left side and gazed into the transparent case with the spider. Peter nearly jumped out of his skin upon realizing that it was his crush but kept his calm composure, after striking the transparent case with the back of his hand and the cover of the case shifted out of place.

"Yeah, it sure is. Do you like spiders?" Peter said nervously.

"I love spiders. My family thinks it's creepy for me to love an eight-legged arachnid, but I think spiders are the most beautiful creatures to live on this earth."

Peter tried to impress her by saying that he liked spiders too. "Yeah, I think so too. I mean, there are thousands of species of spiders in the world."

"At least thirty-five thousand _known_ species. This spider is unique because Dr. Warren said that it may be the first of a new species or the last of a new species or the only one of a species."

Peter was taken back for a second by Gwen's keen interest in spiders. "I know some spider species names, but only a few. Like the Delena spider, which can leap at great distances. Then there's the net web spider whose webbing is incredibly strong."

"Did you know that some spiders have the ability to predict the future?"

Now he was interested. "What?"

"Some spiders can sense danger before it even happens, like precognition. That's why I like spiders. What are your favorite species?"

Peter was stumped this time. "Uh….tarantulas. I just like how big they are. They should practically be spider generals.

Gwen just giggled cheerfully before admitting, "I like tarantulas too. They don't spin a web and catch a fly like another species of spiders do; they get their hands dirty. They actually go out there and hunt food down themselves."

She turns her attention away from the spider box and to Peter and held her hand out, indicating that she wanted to shake hands with Peter. He was about to shake her hand with his right hand, until he realized that she was holding out her left hand, indicating that she was left-handed. So he puts his right hand back on the table and shakes her left hand with his left hand.

Unknown to him, the spider had crawled out of the transparent box.

"I'm Gwen Stacy," she introduced.

"Peter Parker." He could not believe it, she did not recognize him. Well, he never did make an attempt to introduce himself.

"Why do you seem so familiar? What classes do we have together?"

Peter answered in a somewhat hurt voice, "We have a second, third, fourth, and sixth hour together. We even have the same lunch schedule."

"I think I would remember you…." Now she remembered him. "Oh, you're the one that Flash shoved into the locker last month."

Peter's cheeks started turning red for obvious reasons. "Yeah….that wasn't me."

"Are you sure? I think I would remember."

Peter still tried to convince her otherwise. "That was not me. I have no idea who Flash is anyway."

"I know that's you, Peter."

"No."

"Flash told the whole school via Facebook that he shoved you into a locker and there was a picture matching your face."

Peter gives up. "Yeah….I guess that was me."

"I hated what Flash did to you; I'm glad he didn't come on this trip with you, otherwise he would've kept pushing you around."

A slight smile crossed his face. "I'm fine, I'm fine."

"What about the time he put your head in a toilet?"

"That was a bet me and him had actually…." He realized that he was not good at hiding his embarrassment. He is desperate to change the subject. "So uh….what college do you want to go to?"

"I was thinking here at ESU; I want to study science."

"Me too, well kinda. I want to be a photographer, but I still don't know about ESU."

"Understandable. What kind of photographer? You want to be one for _Time _magazine or National Geographic?"

"I was thinking, the Daily Bugle or the Daily Globe."

"I heard the boss at the Daily Bugle is a conspiracy theorist."

"Probably not; he's a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner."

"Probably, but he is so angry. Have you listened to any of his podcasts? He says that he is not full of anger, but love. He's going to have a heart attack and he is only fifty-four years of age. Speaking of which, how old are you?"

"Fifteen, you?"

"Sixteen. Where are your friends?"

Peter pointed out Harry and Ned out. "My friends are Ned and Harry. Where are your friends?'

She didn't have to point out her friends. "All here on this trip with me. I can't wait to be done with school. Honestly, I feel like I don't need school because I basically ace every test."

Peter knew that feeling just as much as the next person. "I know that feeling. I feel like we should already be in college or something, you know? In all my report cards, they've all been A+s and nothing else. I assume the same for you."

"Yeah, my dad is proud of me."

Peter had no mother or father, so he said, "My aunt and uncle are proud of me."

"What about your mom and dad?"

"My parents died a long time ago, I live with Aunt May and Uncle Ben," he explained.

Gwen suddenly felt a rush of remorse and regret flush over her. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." She put a comforting hand on Peter's shoulder.

"It's okay, really," Peter promised, savoring the feeling of Gwen's comforting hand on his shoulder.

The spider slowly crawled onto Peter's thumb and he didn't notice or feel the appendages. The spider moved up a bit and crawled underneath Peter's hand and to his wrist. The spider bit down as hard as it could and sank its sharp fangs into Peter's skin and injected an unknown substance into his artery.

Peter groaned in pain and smacked his wrist back. The spider already jumped off his skin and crawled back inside the transparent box before he even noticed. It was like….the spider….had human intelligence. He clutched his wrist in pain and winced before looking at the bite mark on his artery vein. He snapped his head towards the spider box and saw the spider just curled up in the corner. _What the hell,_ he thought. _Did that spider just bite me and crawl away and pretend as nothing happened?_

Gwen was concerned and asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just felt like something bit my wrist."

"Let me see."

Peter shows her the glowing red bite mark and looks over to the spider.

"Did that spider bite you?" her voice filled with nothing but concern for her new friend.

Peter answered dryly and tried to make a joke. "I don't know, but then again, this is an unknown species so it could've bitten me and crawled back to its original spot. Kinda like what Ghostface would do when he kills his victim."

Gwen did not chuckle at all. "This is real life, not a funny movie. We should tell a doctor and hope it's not poisonous."

Peter spoke his mind and said, "I feel a little nauseous."

Just as Miles Warren was telling everybody about the chaos theory that ESU was currently studying, his phone rang and he answered it. The voice on the other end was telling him to meet him in the biochemist lab. Miles obeyed the order and closed his phone. "All right then, I am needed somewhere else, so my lovely wife and assistant, Monica, will take over if any of you guys have any questions. Please excuse me."

Miles walks off through one of the doors, leaving Gwen standing there with a sweating Peter leaning on her shoulder. Gwen tells him to sit down and helps him find the nearest chair.

"I can still go on," Peter insisted, the pain in his wrist worsening. Gwen noticed and refused.

"Peter, I think you're a good guy, but you need to sit down and catch your breath." After she sets him down in the chair, she feels his forehead with the back of his hand. "You are burning up like a furnace. What is wrong with you? How do you feel?"

Peter did not hesitate to answer. "Like I'm burning up in a furnace. I seriously feel like I'm stranded in the Rub al' Khali desert."

"This is not _Uncharted 3_, this is real life. I'm going to find you a doctor."

Peter slurred, "Can you stay wit meh?"

"Huh?"

"Can you stay with me?" He spoke more clearly. "My head feels like it's going to explode."

"Sure, I'll stay with you. I'll just tell your friends to go find a doctor."

"Harry and Ned," he reminded, predicting that she forgot the name of her friends.

"Let me go find them."

Gwen races off to go find Peter's two friends. The group being lead by Monica was already a couple meters ahead of them and the group seems to have forgotten about Peter and Gwen. Peter tried his hardest to keep his eyes open no matter what, but ultimately, tiredness overcame him and he closed his eyes. He slowly leaned to the side and gently laid his head on the table. The spider that bit him watched Peter lay unconscious. The spider crawls out of the box and onto the table. It slowly makes its way towards Peter. The spider crawled onto Peter's hair and circled his forehead. It finally made a decision about where to go when it saw that he was wearing a jacket with an inner pocket. The spider crawls down Peter's chest and inside his jacket, taking refuge in his pocket.

Peter spent the last ten minutes asleep, having vivid dreams of his mother and father the last day they saw him. One of the dreams or flashes he saw made him move a little in his sleep. He didn't get a clear picture, but he saw that his chest and face were bleeding, there was a helicopter above him, and he was holding his life in his arms.

He burst back to life with a gasp. His vision clears up from sleeping and he saw what kind of predicament he was in. The place was on fire and burning down to the ground. He jumped to his feet with a yell in fear, "Holy crap, the place is burning down."

He looks at the spider box and discovered it gone and so were the other unknown substances and materials.

"I gotta get out of here. I gotta find Gwen and get out of here."

He could already hear sirens outside, indicating that the firefighters arrived quickly on the scene. Peter dashed for the front door, only to discover it blocked off by debris. He tries running back another way, relying on his adrenaline to sharpen his decision making. He kept telling himself that he had to get out of here. The only door that was not blocked off was the one the group took earlier when lead by Monica. He runs through, coming out into a hallway set in ablaze in the fire. The smoke was starting to get to him and he began coughing hacking.

Then there was something else. A tingling feeling in the back of his head. With the confused look on his face, he puts a hand to the back of his head to see if there was something crawling there, only for some kind of force to slowly make him look up to see a huge chunk of debris in the shape of a boulder fall and towards his head.

Without even thinking, he jumps forward and clings onto the ceiling as the debris hit the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

He was sticking with his bare fingertips to the ceiling. He looks down below and saw that it was indeed true. He really was sticking to the ceiling and he was bewildered, but nevertheless, glad that that chunk of debris did not kill him. To test to make sure that he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating from the black smoke, he removes one of his hands from the ceiling and sticks to it. He did again with the other hand and the result was the same.

"Like a spider."

He crawled on the ceiling to get on the other side of the fire. Whenever parts of the ceiling would start to give in, the tingling sensation in his skull would warn him, enabling him to move out the way in time. Once he was on the other side of the fire, he dropped down and made a run for it.

There was an open window at the very end of the hallway, giving Peter hope that he would escape. He sprinted for it, faster than he thought he could sprint. The tingling sensation in his skull was back and it was warning him that the floor between him and the window was set on fire and clinging to a surface was not an option for the fire was spreading up the walls and the ceiling. The tingling sensation was alerting him to jump for it though. He was initially reluctant because he knew he could not jump that far, but he trusted the tingling sensation and jumped forward.

He yelled in excitement as he soared through the burning air and out the window with ease, landing into some bushes and running as fast he could to get away from the burning university.

"That was so cool and epic," he said to himself as he looked at his hands, finding somewhere to stop. "How could I jump like that, how could I crawl on the ceiling like that? How could I sense danger like that." Then it suddenly hit him like a train. "The spider that bit me, of course. I have to retrieve it." He suddenly felt something crawling on his chest. He looks inside his jacket pocket and sees the spider itself, looking at Peter as if it had known him.

"What in the world are you?"

He looks up in the distance and spots Gwen, smiling that she has made it out safely.

(())(())

"What do we have here?"

An entire body wrapped in bandages with a tube sticking out the mouth area laid in a bed at Lenox Hill Hospital. The doctor's name was Norman Osborn and he was examining a man who had been caught in the flames and was burnt from his head to toe in flames. Norman Osborn was a tall man with red hair that matched Harry's and more importantly, he was the CEO of Oscorp. A businessman by day and night, doctor's assistant by evening.

"It's going to be a long time before this man is out of bed." He looks at the clipboard in his hand, no name on this person. "Who are you, I wonder."

The doctor wanted to remove the bandages to see who this man was, but decided against it considering that the poor man needed as much wrapping around his burns as possible.

"I promise to help you out. I'll get you whatever treatment you need." Norman didn't notice the burnt man's fist clench tightly. Norman was about to turn away but was prevented from doing so. The clenched hand wrapped itself hard around Norman's throat. Norman's eyes widened and he gagged for air, trying to unwrap the hand from his neck. He watched in horror as the burnt man slowly turned his bandaged head toward the red-faced Norman. Like he was getting out of bed, the bandaged man stood straight up and with one shove, threw Norman hard against the wall. Norman tips over a table of medicine in the process before his head connects to the ground and he is knocked unconscious.

The bandaged man looks away from Norman and gazed upon his own self with interest. He looks at his right hand and removes the wrapping from his hand. His burn wounds had healed completely when he has burnt to the bone only two hours ago. Underneath the wrapping on his face, the burnt man smiled.

(())(())

The second Peter was released home from school, he ran to his room. Aunt May and Uncle Ben called out to Peter, worried about him ever since the fire that occurred this morning.

"Are you okay, Pete?" Uncle Ben voiced his concern.

Peter tried to reassure him that he was fine. "I'm fine, Uncle Ben. I swear."

"Why didn't you call us then?"

"I was going to, but my phone died out on me. I'm sorry." He hugs both May and Ben as tightly as he could, feeling sadness for having not telling them and worrying them.

"We have been worried sick about you," Aunt May reminded. "You never should've gone on that trip."

Uncle Ben tried to calm his wife down by saying, "Well, they couldn't have predicted it."

"It's a building full of laboratory experiments, of course, they are responsible."

"It was an accident, May. What matters is Peter is not harmed."

"You think I can sue? Peter, where were you when this fire broke out. Were you anywhere near the fire?"

"I was…." he didn't want to tell them about being bit by the spider until he knew what was going on. "I was with the group and we were away from the fire." That was the only excuse he could think of. "I'm sorry for the worry I put you through. I'm very irresponsible, and I'm very hungry." He moves towards the kitchen and starts hawking at leftover food in the fridge.

He started with leftover macaroni from last night. Then it went from that to the last pop tarts, and then pork chop. "Aunt May, have I ever told you how much I love your cooking? Your cooking is the best in the world." His face was stuffed with food, his dialogue somewhat muffled. "My stomach feels like a grinder, so I can eat all day. At least you are getting your time's worth out of cooking these food and money's worth for these pop tarts."

He then went to drink a whole carton of milk, and then another carton of water. "I had a long day, so I think I'm gonna go to my room and finish this food. I'll clean up when I'm done."

Peter retreated back to his room to finish his food. He piled the trash on his bed and put the spider on his desk from his pocket. He reached into his drawer and pulled out a microscope that his aunt and uncle gave to him for his birthday recently. He gently set the spider underneath the microscope and surprisingly, it showed no resistance. Looking through the lenses, the spider was completely unknown to himself and on the internet. He searched through one thousand sites (literally) for this spider, and still nothing. This spider just might've well as been from another dimension.

"Forget about the spider origin," he told himself with a slap on the forehead. He jumped back to his feet and stared at the wall. "If this spider gave me climbing abilities, then I have to make sure."

He slapped his right hand on the wall followed by the left. He hauls himself up, feeling weightless as he climbed like a spider up the wall. "No way, this is not happening," he whispered to himself. He leaped off the wall and landed on the floor with a backflip. He jumps forward and freezes in a handstand.

_No way, I've never been able to do that before._

The spider watched Peter from the desk, seemingly with eagerness.


	2. II

Peter leans slightly to the left to take his right hand off the floor and just do a handstand on one hand. Feeling overconfident to the point where regular people would believe it as arrogance, Peter evolved the handstand by hand standing on only _one_ finger, his middle finger.

"Wow," Peter said, astonished. He then took things even higher when he did a push up with his only one finger. He front flips onto his feet and smiles to himself. Slowly, he looks down at his hands and makes tight fists out of both of them, the smile never disappearing from his face. "This is awesome, I can't believe this." His gaze slowly averts from his hands to the spider staring intently at him. Peter slowly walks over to his desk and picks up the spider gently. He crouches down with the spider in his hand and gently pets it with his index finger. "Thank you. Thank you for saving me." He officially loved that spider and decided to give it a name. "What kind of name would you like? How about, Redips? It's 'Spider' spelled backward. Okay, that's your name from now on. Redips."

He gently petted Redips on the head and the spider looked at Peter with its eight eyes.

Several days later, Peter began jogging regularly with Redips on his shoulder. He would normally run about five miles in eight minutes and return home. Having enjoyed himself being a human with the physiology of a spider, he would normally go to this one construction site to climb the walls and get over his fear of heights. But once he returned home on Thursday night from his day out, he came across Gwen who was walking home from an unspecified location. Peter slowed down a bit to walk up to her and meet her, choking down all the shyness that was building up within him and replaced it with courage.

"Hey, Pete." She recognized him, relieving Peter. "I haven't seen you since the fire; where have you been all week?"

"I've been busy," Peter excused. "I've been extremely busy at both school and at home." He did not want to tell her about his spider-human biology just yet. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good. My dad was at the station and he managed to save some people."

"Really?" He remembered her surname was Stacy and the Queens' police captain was George Stacy. "Your dad is the police captain, right?"

"Yeah," she confirmed his suspicions. "George Stacy. He told me that toxic fumes caused the fire. He found nobody trapped inside the fire and everybody is accounted for."

Peter nodded in relief that no one was injured. "That's good to know."

Suddenly, Gwen's smile faltered and was replaced with a facial expression of guilt. "I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry for leaving you behind when you got bit."

It hurt Peter to see Gwen in such a saddened state. "It's fine," he reassured promisingly. "I feel normal now like nothing's changed." _Yeah, except for the fact that I am a human spider._

Gwen flashed a small relief smirk. "Did you ever find out what bit you?"

Peter excused, "Just a mosquito."

Gwen remembered his wrist and she remembered the two bite marks. "But there were two teeth marks."

Peter shrugged like he didn't know and came up with a highly implausible excuse. "A mosquito with two fangs." This made Gwen chuckle, bringing a smile to his face. "Thank you for your concern. My aunt, she wanted to sue the university, but Uncle Ben convinced her not to."

"Dad says they're gonna rebuild the part of the university that was burnt down."

"Good, because I'm pretty sure it cost a lot more money to rebuild the university than to attend it." He made Gwen laugh again, but after that, silence befell both of them. There were a couple of minutes of awkward silence before Peter spoke up again. "So, tomorrow's Friday and Homecoming."

"Yeah."

Peter was suddenly feeling nervous again and was mentally slapping himself for it. "So….are you going to go to Homecoming or do you have other plans. I'm going to Homecoming cause my aunt and uncle already paid for my ticket."

"I'm going to Homecoming," she said as if she read his mind. "I just don't have a date."

Peter's nervousness was about to reach its peak. "I don't have a date either." Now at this point, nervousness overcame him and he was twirling his fingers in his hair literally. "So uh….Gwen….do….you….want ta….go to…."

"Homecoming with you?"

"Yeeeeaaaahhhh…."

Gwen thought about it for a few seconds. She did just abandon him at ESU and she had to make up for his troubles and this looked to be the way. "Why not?"

Peter was dancing like a pop star from the inside. "Yes." He barely contained himself. "What time do you want me to pick you up? Er….I mean to come to you?"

She pretended to think. "About seven?"

"Done and done."

"What's the second 'done' for?"

"Nothing, just an expression. But I'll see you around, Gwen."

"Yeah, I'll see you later, Pete.

Gwen walks away and back home, leaving Peter there to his thoughts. He had only one thing on his mind: _I could not be happier!_

Peter raced back home using the strength in his legs to run at sixty miles per hour to look for a suit. His Uncle Ben bought him a suit for Homecoming and he was happy to be wearing it for someone. The suit consisted of a black jacket, a white shirt, black tie, black pants, leather black boots, and cuffs. He hoped he looked handsome in _this_ suit. But that wasn't all that was on his mind. He remembered how Gwen stated she loved spiders, so he made his next goal his primary objective: He was going to impress her with his spider powers. He barricaded his front door and began designing a suit. His idea for a spider costume was a red hoodie with the sleeves cut off, blue sweatshirt and blue sweatpants. The gloves were black and made of leather that he painted red and cut the fingertips off. The boots he had in mine he painted red. As for the final touch, he wore a red ski mask that covered all but his eyes.

When he looked at himself in the mirror, he thought he could add more. He was a human spider after all, so what was a human spider without a spider symbol? He just painted a black spider emblem in the center of his red hoodie. If he was going to criticize himself, it was that he hated how his eyes were exposed.

_Eyes can expose you._

Luckily, he had a pair of goggles that he could use to hide his eyes.

He did a couple of poses with his enhanced flexibilities. He then got thinking about what else he was missing. _What's the one thing a spider needs to be a spider?_

He looks over at Redips and sees him ascending the ceiling via the web.

_Webs, of course. I need to be able to spin a web if I want to be a spider._

He keeps his costume on as he takes apart two wristwatches that were no longer ticking but were still intact. Using his knowledge of chemistry and science, he was able to create a strong webbing fluid with just homemade materials. Now he attached the web fluids to his wristwatches and put them on both wrists. Now he looked at himself in the mirror and nodded.

He tested out the web-shooters on a few objects and pulled them in. He even shot several webs into the ceiling and hung from it to test its strength.

He heard knocking on his door. Peter jumped in surprise and quickly discarded his costume. He stood there in nothing but his boxers and he webbed his homemade costume to the ceiling. He ran to the door and removed the chair barricading it. It was his Aunt May when he opened the door.

"Hey Pete," she spoke, she tried to walk in but noticed that Peter holding the door shut but slightly ajar.

"Hey, Aunt May," Peter said nervously before he continued, "What's goes on?"

"I just remembered that tomorrow is Homecoming at your school and I just wanted to see if I could grab your suit and see if I could iron it." She noticed that he was wearing nothing but his underwear and his clothes were nowhere in sight. "Why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

Peter blushed like a red apple, but answered with: "I was doing push-ups and pulls ups."

She smiled at Peter, making him even more nervous. "For a girl?" Her mockery made him feel impossibly embarrassed.

"What, no, It's pride, Aunt May. Just doing it for myself."

Aunt May's smile did not falter. "If you say so, so can I see your suit?"

"Sure." Peter goes to his closet and retrieves his suit and hands it to Aunt May through the door.

"I'll make sure it's warm and straight by tomorrow," she promised.

"Thanks, Aunt May." Peter closed the door and sighed, relieved that May didn't see the suit. "That was a close one."

* * *

The next day had arrived and Peter made it through school, ran back home, hid his spider costume in his backpack, put on his wristwatch web-shooters, dressed in his suit, and got a ride from Uncle Ben. He arrived fifteen minutes early at the school. Just as Peter was about to get out of the car, Uncle Ben stopped him.

"Hey Pete," Uncle Ben calls as he removes the car keys from the ignition. "Before you go, there's just something I want to say."

"Yeah?"

Uncle Ben had a couple of things to say to his nephew. "When your parents died, we made a promise to them to take care of you. In every way, you are just like your father. You ace every test in science, you have problems with girls…."

"What?"

"You prefer staying to yourself."

Peter could not see what the point of this conversation was. "And?"

Uncle Ben then explained his point. "When your father, my brother, went to his Homecoming for the first time, he met the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He changed in a couple of ways. He let his job get in the way of spending time with his family, his friends, he never wanted a child. You are just like him in every way, Pete. I just wanted to let you know that if you meet a girl you want to spend the rest of your life within that dance, you have to be very careful who you change into. Your father was a man who had great power but was irresponsible. With great power comes great responsibility."

Peter understood what his uncle was saying but just nodded nonchalantly. "Thanks, Uncle Ben, but I think I can handle myself here. I'm not my father. I'll see you later Uncle Ben."

Peter exits the car through the passenger door and walks towards the school. Uncle Ben rolls down the window and shouts to him, "I love you, Pete." Peter didn't respond, however.

Inside the high school gym, Harry and Ned were attending the buffet table. Ned would get kids whatever kind of food they wanted while Harry would collect the money the food cost. Peter walked into the dance room, meeting Gwen talking with her friends. Gwen spotted Peter in his nice suit and bid farewell to her friends so she could walk over to him. While Gwen walked over, Michelle hanging out with Max, Quentin, Cindy, and Liz, noticed Peter and gave him the bird. This did not go unnoticed by Peter.

"I can't believe how cute you look in that suit," Qwen said happily.

Peter's eyes turned to her white dress that was long enough to come over her shins. "I can say the same thing for your dress. Uncle Ben drove me to your house and your father said you weren't there."

"That's because my dad dropped me off. I assumed you were going to arrive on your own because you said when could you meet me."

"Yeah," he looked around and spotted some of his friends. "Do you want some punch?"

"Sure."

"I'll get it for you. I insist." Peter smiled shyly at her and went over to his friends and ordered some punch. When Harry told him that one cup of punch cost four dollars, Peter was outraged. "What kind of cup of punch cost four dollars? I could buy a Minute Maid lemonade for two dollars."

"Sorry," Harry said nonchalantly rather than sympathetically. "School policy."

"Fine," Peter groaned. He reached into his back pocket and discovered his wallet gone. "Crap, I forgot my wallet at home." Then he remembered. "I have a backup wallet in my locker, I'll be right back."

"We ain't going nowhere," Ned said. He then grabbed a cup and filled his cup with water. Harry grabbed the cup and threw the water in Ned's face.

"Four dollars."

"What's up, jackasses," Quentin mocked as he walked up with Max by his side. "Why did you guys even bother to dress up with you weren't going to be dancing with any honey?"

"I could say the same for you, Quentin," Ned challenged as he wiped the water out of his face with a rag he pulled out of his inner pocket. "Where's your date?"

"Hey babe," Betsy Schneider called to Quentin as she approached him, "What's going on here?"

"Nothing babe," Quentin reassured his date. "Leeds here is just being the regular dickhead that he usually is. Although, I am impressed to see him step away from Peter for once. Thought that dickwad burned to death at ESU. Anyway, I was just about to buy you a drink."

Both Ned and Harry cringed upon seeing the sight of Quentin Beck kissing Betsy Schneider.

Ned leaned in to whisper to Hary, "How does he have a girlfriend?"

Back with Michelle, she would say that she was having fun, but when she saw Peter leave the room, her skin suddenly turned cold. She said nothing as she sat down in a chair behind her and just watched the other dance their problems away to pop music and here she was, jealous and somewhat sad that she didn't have anyone to dance with.

Peter walked back outside into the hallway with lockers. He heads straight for his locker to open and up and retrieve his wallet inside. He also noticed his backpack with his costume inside. He closed his locker and pulled out four dollars before putting his wallet in his pocket. As he turned around, the tingling sensation in his skull rang out.

A man in a large trench coat with a black ski mask concealing his face turned at one of the paths down the hallway and ran towards Peter. He sensed that there was something dangerous about this man running because the tingling sensation in his skull was intensifying. Instead of going with his spider-sense, he just let the man in the trench coat just pass by. He shrugged and went back inside the gym for Homecoming. Once he bought that punch for Gwen after laughing hysterically at the punch-soaked Ned, something happened outside.

A gunshot.

Peter and a whole group of students ran outside to see a man clutching his heart area with another man above putting pressure on his bleeding wound. Gwen recognized that savior as her father, George Stacy, and Peter recognized the wounded man as his…

"Uncle Ben!" Peter kneeled to his dying uncle's side, horrified at what has become of his uncle. "What happened?" he asked Captain Stacy.

"Escaped convict shot your uncle and took the car," George explained. "The EMTs are on the way, just keep the pressure on his wound."

Peter did what he was told, but focused intently on his dying uncle. He called out to his name several times before Uncle Ben finally acknowledged him through a raspy voice. "Peter…."

"I'm here for you, Uncle Ben," Peter spoke softly. One of his hands left the wound and took one of Uncle Ben's hands. "I'm sorry this happened to you." He suddenly remembered the last thing his uncle said to him in the car before Peter shut him out. He was telling him to be a better man than his father, and he threw it back in his face. Peter cried seeing Uncle Ben's pained face and it hurt him even more than he didn't say 'I love you too' when he told him that he loved him. Peter could barely hold his tears back as he watched his Uncle Ben take his last breath of air and eyes close slowly.

Peter could do nothing but let go of Uncle Ben's hand and break down in tears. He laid his head on Uncle Ben's hand, crying, which eventually turned to something else.

_The man in the trench coat,_ Peter thought to himself. _I let him get away and now Uncle Ben is dead. I had the power to stop him, and I didn't._ Peter looked at the tire skids in the ground and off into the distance, predicting where the stolen vehicle was driving. _I'm going to make him pay. I'm going to make him wish he was never born._

Peter raced back inside the school, running as fast as he could to his locker to take his backpack out. He puts it on and races through an alternate exit of the school. He runs in between several buildings before leaping and wall running to the roof of one. While wall running, he discarded his clothes and unzipped his backpack and began putting on his costume. Once he reached the top of the roof, he made sure his mask was secure around his face.

Once on the roof, he ran towards the edge and looked out into the distance. He could see his uncle's car driving off. He looked at his web-shooters and then at the buildings around him. "I can't believe I'm gonna do this." He backs a few feet and takes a deep breath as he feels the adrenaline. "Let's hope this works." He sprints as fast as he could and jumps off the edge.

He aims his arm out and pushes into his palm with his middle and ring finger. A white substance in the form of a straight line shoots from his wrist and makes a web at the end on the edge of a building. Peter howled in both terror and excitement as he swung across the ground and high into the sky. His fingers slipped off the web and he went flying forward. He yelled once more as he plunged toward the ground, but caught himself shooting another line of the web out and swinging again. Since this was his very first time swinging on his web, he was having a very difficult time keeping his balance and maintaining his grip. But he does whatever he can to stay on his designated target.

He yells through his mask as he nears his target. The killer may be going sixty miles in the car, but Peter was swinging fast and caught up to the car after swinging and jumping off a street light. He is on the roof of the car and crouches down. He jams his fingertips onto the roof of the car just to ensure he would stick on and not fall off.

Impulsively, he does a short front flip and lands onto the hood of the car and turns around. The killer was wearing the same trench coat and he began jerking the wheel in an attempt to throw Peter off.

"You killed my uncle," Peter shouted, his voice muffled through the mask. He aims his web-shooters at the window and began quick-firing small web balls at the window numerous times until the front window was covered by just one big spider web. The killer rolled down the window to put his head out to navigate. Peter shot a web line at this face and blinded the man. Peter quickly looks over his shoulder to see them get ready to pass an incoming street light. Peter shoots another web at the very top of the street light and quickly connects it to the killer's face. He was launched into the air once they went under the street light.

Peter felt proud of himself, but the tingling feeling was back. He looked behind him and saw where this car was heading: for the pier and into the water. He jumps off as quickly as he could, not bothering to stop the car as it crashes over and into the water to drown. Peter swung high in the air and spotted the hanging carjacker. He swings towards him and web kicks the blind carjacker hard, sending him flying through the window of a large building behind him.

The killer rolls onto his back and stops only when he hits a wall. Peter swung through the shattered window and into a place he recognized. The pier's warehouse. He paid no attention and moved towards the killer. The killer barely got the webbing off of his face and scrambled to his feet when he saw Peter in his homemade human spider suit.

Peter forcefully grabs him by the head and kicks him numerous times in the stomach. He lifts his head and reels his fist back to punch him hard. He broke the killer's nose. Grabbing him by both shoulders, he threw the killer to the side and he went falling headfirst through another window. Before he could fall into the water below, Peter shot a web at him to prevent him from falling and yanked him back like a dog. The killer tried swinging his fists at Peter, but he had the advantage of his tingling skull to help him dodge and counterattack and webbed his punching hand to his chest. Peter backflips with his feet connecting to the killer's jaw. The killer staggers back and barely stops as he was about to fall out of the shattered window.

The killer was starting to lose consciousness and was bleeding badly in the face. The killer feels a powerful kick to his stomach and folds over, making a perfect L shape. He groans painfully and almost falls over if not for Peter grabbing him by the chest and shoving him against the wall.

"You killed my uncle," Peter declared vindictively as he shoved the killer so hard against the wall that he was actually off the ground with the tip of his boots barely scraping the ground. "And now I'm going to kill you." There was an unbroken window beside him that he could hurl the killer through and end his life. He was so keen on doing it that the adrenaline almost made him throw the killer out, the only thing that kept Peter from tossing him out was a voice inside his head. Not a tingling sensation alerting him of danger, but the last words that his uncle told him before he shut him out.

_With great power, comes great responsibility._

Almost all of the rage was gone within Peter. His adrenaline starts to decrease as he calms down. _It's my fault; Uncle Ben is dead because I let the killer getaway. I killed Uncle Ben._

The guilt made Peter back away from the killer, his face was frozen with horror. The happy memories of his uncle came flooding back, drawing a single tear from one of his eyes, but the killer didn't notice because Peter's face was concealed.

"Thanks for not killing me, kid," the killer said mock gratefully. "But I have a knife and you don't and I enjoyed every second of shooting your uncle and watching him bleed." The killer whips a knife out of his back pocket and attempted to slash Peter across the throat. Peter's tingling head alerted him, giving him more than enough time to jerk his head back and web his knifed hand to his chest. Not all of his rage disappeared because he punched the killer hard in the throat. The killer wheezes for air and grabs his throat with his unwebbed hand. He leans back and hits the unshattered glass window so hard that he fell through. Peter realized what was happening and tried to grab the man before he fell through, but it was too late. The man was falling three stories into the water and Peter had only a few seconds to act. He aimed his arm out the falling killer and shot a web out, only for the web to fall short. Peter's eyes widened as he realized that he ran out of web fluid before he could save the killer. All he could do was watch as the killer plunged into the ocean. He didn't plunge straight into the ocean. The killer fell onto a pillar sticking out of the water, hitting the small of his back and broke his back when he was bent like a U. Then he fell straight into the ocean and drowned.

Peter stared in horror as he saw no more air bubbles appear at the surface, leading him to the horrible realization that the killer drowned to death. "Not good," he said softly. "I'm so sorry, Uncle Ben that I didn't save you, but your death was at least avenged." If the police found him, then he would be a murder suspect. He reached into one of the pockets of his hoodie and pulled out cartridges of web fluid for his web shooter that ran out. He jumps out the window and swings back home.

Ten o'clock night time, Peter was sitting in the middle of his room, crisscrossed, costume on but mask off and laying in front of him with the front to him. Peter's face wet with tears, the guilt of not only being able to save his uncle or his uncle's killer but the guilt that he had the power and he was being selfish. His instincts were telling him that something was wrong with the man who ran past him, yet he ignored him. He was going to use these powers to impress a girl who barely knows him, and it cost him his uncle's life and the life of a bad man he tried to save.

Even at this time in the night, he could still hear his Aunt May sobbing over her loss and Peter wasn't there to comfort her. He wanted to tell her that it was his fault that his uncle was dead, but she would be more worried about the fact that he went out there to hunt down a man to kill. She would be more worried about Peter.

_I will tell her when the time is right._

He was sitting on the ground for over an hour before inspiration turns on inside his head. A small but noticeable smile even in the dark was on Peter's face. _With great power comes great responsibility….I have great power, and I can use it to save other people. I won't let another tragedy like Uncle Ben happen._

He looked over to his kneecap to see Redips crawling on him. Very slowly and very gently, he petted Redips. This spider is the one who gave him the power, but Uncle Ben gave him the inspiration to be responsible.

_As of tonight, I am no longer Peter Parker….I'm Spiderman._


	3. III

**Disclaimer: I do not own Forever by Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Enimen. They own that song so they get all the credits. **

* * *

A week has passed since Uncle Ben's death and Peter was still in his room, working on his new suit. He designed a more professional looking costume. When Peter was working on improving his web shooters, Redips crawled towards him, carrying a cartridge of web fluid. But there was one thing in particular that Peter was doing to his suit: implanting millions of dollars worth of technology inside. Since Harry had been taken over Oscorp in the absence of his father, who was told to be in Europe handing business partners with Oscorp, Peter downloaded battlefield and weaponry data from one of the computers onto a flash drive and took it home and was implanting all that data into his costume.

When Parker tried his mask on but kept his regular clothes on, he heard a voice. "Who said that?"

"I did," a female voice said. "I am your personal A.I. guide and I will help you."

"Are you in the suit, lady?" Peter asked softly, touching the mask.

"Yes, I am implanted in your suit. I can help you navigate through New York and help improve your web settings. I can help you find better ways to take down criminals, Peter."

"You know my name? Why are you saying all of this, Suit Lady?" Peter asked. He was still a little bewildered on how this A.I. knew his name and motives. "Aren't you just some kind of computer?"

"I am more than a computer; I am sentient. I can feel that you are still sad for your deceased uncle. But once you become a hero and I'm your sidekick, we won't have another problem like that."

"Suit Lady? I feel bad for calling you 'Suit Lady.' Can I give you a name?"

"You can give me a name if you want."

Peter paced around the room for several seconds, humming to himself to think of names. "How about, Gwen?" He smacked himself in the head as the idea of naming his A.I. sidekick after his crush who he barely knew was disgusting and weird. "Never mind, how about something simple, like Karen?"

"You can call me Karen if you like."

Peter settled on the name Karen. He smiled under his mask and put on the rest of his costume. When he was done, he looked at himself in the mirror, looking much more professional than his homemade costume. He had a small spider icon in the middle of his chest with a web motif. His eyes were now optical and could shutter like a camera whenever he narrowed or widened his eyes. His web shooters now had over five hundred different combinations and Karen was his guide and Redips, he found a suitable role for him. He would take Redips with him on missions and he would be pivotal in a steal. Redips had a tiny camera attached to its back linked to Spiderman's lenses so Redips was his wingman or wing-spider.

New York's first appearance of Spiderman swinging around Queens. There was currently an ATM burglary at the bank. Two thugs were stealing millions of dollars worth of money. They almost pulled off their heist without a scratch, until they stepped outside and were yanked into the air with the bag of money falling to the ground. The police found the two thugs trapped in between two poles in a spider web.

When the sun had set, a woman was being mugged in an alley by a single man. Just as he was about to make off with her purse, a web shot at his back and Spiderman web kicked him unconscious. Spiderman returned her purse and swung out of there.

The day after, before school started, Spiderman went on patrol and stopped a man from stealing a bicycle. He could not figure out whose bicycle it was, so he left a note. Not so long after that, a senile blind old woman was having trouble crossing the street, so Spiderman helped her out. After that, she bought him a churro. He ate it for breakfast on his swing to school., which gave him an upset stomach.

_Never eat and swing at the same time._

After school was over, Peter went back to patrolling. He stopped a car thief from driving away with a hostage couple in his trunk. He banged his head against the windshield and webbed his hand to the tire. He then freed the couple and swung off.

The most action he has ever gotten was when there was a driver who passed out while driving his car and his foot pressed down on the gas. Spiderman was there in a swift moment. He was aware that the car was going to crash into a city bus unless he did something. He swung to the side of the city bus and stopped the incoming car with his hands, saving the lives in both vehicles.

But his biggest day of action came from a bank robbery. There was a whole gang of thugs who walked into a national bank totaling five stories, gassed the place with sleeping gas, silenced the alarm, and stole all the money from the vault. After that, they shot grappling hooks to the roof and climbed up. Then a helicopter came and took the gang of thugs in so they could escape the scene. They thought it was like taking candy from a baby, but their plan backfired on them horribly. Spiderman chased after them and shot two dozen webs at the tail of the helicopter and yanked them back.

Spiderman yanked them a long way, making a huge spider web between two very tall buildings and entrapping the helicopter in it. The propellers were tangled in the web, so they couldn't go anywhere and they couldn't open the door because they were tilted at a forty-five-degree angle and would fall three hundred feet to their deaths if they opened the door.

From a distance, they resembled flies caught in a spider's web. Spiderman smiled in satisfaction before shooting web out and swinging off.

* * *

A month has passed since Spiderman's first appearance.

In England, Norman Osborn dressed in a sharp business suit was meeting up with his employees at the Oscorp in London. London's Oscorp was responsible for designing and engineering weapons for the military. Norman met up with the head scientist of the facility, Dr. Mendel Stromm, a bald scientist with glasses and gray hair on the sides. Norman shook hands with his assistant.

"Dr. Osborn," Stromm spoke. "I wasn't expecting you to be back so early. What happened?"

"Nothing of real importance," Norman answered as he straightened his tie. "I just flew here to pick up some stuff."

"I heard about being attacked at the hospital after a portion of ESU burned down," Stromm said, Norman detecting concern in the man's voice. "Are you okay?"

Norman offered a half-hearted smile as a sign of reassurance, very rarely did Norman crack a smile to anyone other than his family. "I'm alright. A traumatized man mistook me for someone else, but he was sedated and everything was normal after that." He walked past his assistant and towards something hanging on display in the back room. "Is my glider still in mint condition."

Stromm nodded. "Nobody has touched the glider, I made sure." His eyes drew towards the glider on display. "What is it that brings your interest in it?"

Norman nonchalantly walked up towards the glider hanging on display. Once he was inches away, he gently places a finger on the blade positioned underneath the glider. He pricks his finger and licks the blood of his fingertip, smiling sardonically. "Dr. Stromm, I'm going to be taking this glider with me back to New York."

"Doctor?"

"You heard me," Norman insisted as he cleaned his finger. "And where are the Performance Enhancers?"

Stromm was struggling to find an answer, stuttering before the answer left his mouth. "They have been placed in the Isolation Chamber along with the prosthetic arms. What else?"

"Our battlefield armor suit," Norman began. "Is that still in its original position?"

"Yes, sir. All three of these things are inaccessible to anyone but you, Dr. Osborn. I must warn you that the Performance Enhancers aren't ready. We still need at least two weeks."

Norman backed away from the glider and without looking at Stromm, moved over to his desk to grab a tissue for his finger. "Dr. Stromm, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your work, but right now, back home in New York, something that brought my attention requires everything that I have just listed."

"Was it Alchemax? Were they trying to buy Oscorp from you?"

Norman just chuckled and wiped the blood off his finger. "Alchemax, please. This is all personal. There is someone back home in New York who would really like to see what was happened with the technological advancements at Oscorp in London."

"Who?"

"Someone who would rather not be named right now. Apparently, if his identity was to be revealed, then all kinds of hell would break loose and his big plans would fall apart before they even start. Now I must ask, where is Dr. Octavius?"

"Right here," a new voice said as a new person entered the room. Norman and Stromm turned to see a short man with stiffened hands.

"Dr. Octavius," Norman said dryly. "How long has it been since we've met? I believe the last time we saw each other was when you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee." His facial expression remained as blank as a void, but Otto Octavius was not fazed in any way, except when his hand started shaking. Norman noted this and decided to make small talk about it. "I see your 'condition' hasn't changed in the five months we haven't seen each other."

"I am working on a special project to help deal with deteriorating nerves," Octavius said proudly. "Those prosthetic arms that you want, those are mine. You gave me funding into creating them, so, therefore, I can't allow you to take them back to New York." He was starting to lose the feeling in his left arm. His hand was feeling numb and a painful sensation rang throughout his entire arm.

"It seems like you would indeed be the perfect subject for the 'Octopus Arms'," Norman declares to the wincing Octavius. "Otto, why don't you come back with me to New York? The Octo Arms, you can wear them there because there is a new plan. A new project."

Octavius waited for the painful burning to disappear before he spoke again. "A new project? I told you not to set too many projects than you can handle."

"It's not just a new project," Norman began explaining. "It's a new company."

"What company?"

"Something far bigger than you ever expected. One that involves New York City itself. You see, back home, there is a masked man swinging around on a web, tying criminals to the wall, trapping them in a web like a fly caught in a web. There is someone who is Oscorp's new partner dislikes very much. He doesn't like the ideas of vigilantes. He says that one vigilante who works without legal authority is dangerous for they can inspire people to live above the law. He doesn't want to kill anybody, but he wants something even bigger than all. He wants the Spiderman himself. The wall-crawling vigilante of New York itself."

Octavius and Stromm stared intently at Norman as if he's gone mad.

"What are you talking about," Octavius went on. "What partner hates a man who saves lives? What partner hates the idea of a whole community going above the law to save others? What partner is this in the first place?!"

"Me, I believe."

Octavius and Stromm snapped around to find the source of the new voice. Before they could even get a clear view, a large figure jumped out of the shadows with incredible speed and with one kick, launched Dr. Stromm across the room and crashing into a table of equipment. The chemicals mix upon being splattered on and the poor doctor catches fire. Stromm tried screaming for help, but the inside of his throat caught fire and his larynx was burned to ash. Stromm managed to stand to one knee, but ultimately collapse on his belly and continue to burn away.

As for Octavius, the figure punches him hard across the face which knocks him out instantly. Norman slapped with a maniacal smile on his face.

The culprit was a tall man dressed in all black, showing absolutely no skin. Black jacket, shirt, belt, jeans, boots, socks, gloves, hood. For his face, it was concealed by a Jackal mask covering all but the eyes that you could get from a Halloween store. But the Jackal mask that he was wearing was not cheap and cost a lot of money to make. It was custom-made.

"Getting hot in this mask," a deep voice spoke from underneath the mask. A pair of gloved hands reached for the Jackal mask and removed it, sighing deeply and wiping the sweat from his hand. "Good work Norman. Your armor, the Performance Enhancers, the glider, the Octo Arms, and Otto himself, all have fallen into place."

"And our plan with the spider?" Norman asked eagerly.

The Jackal gazed at the burning corpse, then to the unconscious Octavius, and then back to Norman. "Our plans with the spider, are still in order. As soon as we get everything on the plane, I'm gonna give Dr. O here a taste of that same serum that 'freed' you. We're going to put him in those Octo Arms and you, in that Battlefield Suit. I promise you power beyond your wildest dreams and I have fulfilled. Haven't I?"

(())(()))

Boring. That is how Peter would describe his time sitting on the roof of a nine-story building waiting for some kind of crime to happen. Even this new suit that he designed make him feel cool but still bored. He asked his A.I. sidekick, Karen, if she could play some of his favorite songs while he waits.

"I'm pretty sure some music would kill time."

Some of his favorite song artists include Drake, Eminem, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne...so Karen played the song _Forever_ for him. He shot out web from his left hand and caught it with his right hand. He used the organic webbing as a jump rope, singing to the song.

_It may not mean nothing to y'all, but understand nothing was done for me, so I don't plan on stopping at all, I want this stuff forever man, ever man, ever man. I'm shutting stuff down in the mall, and telling every girl she the one for me, and I ain't even planning to call, I want this S-word forever man, ever man, ever man._

Spiderman felt the hairs on his arm inside his sleeve spike up. The familiar tingling sensation in his brain guided him to a bank robbery happening to blocks away with one woman being held hostage by one of four robbers.

"Karen? It's Spidey time."

He disposes the jump rope web and propels himself off the roof. He shoots a web out and swings across the city of Queens. Karen tells him that all four bank robbers were all armed with submachine guns and the female hostage was already in the car. Spiderman crouches down on a street light and observes the four robbers ducking into a green pickup truck with one in the back and driving off.

"Something tells me those guys aren't going to a charity event with that money."

"They are going sixty miles per hour with pedestrians in the street," Karen informed with a warning. "If you web yank your way, you should be able to catch up to them."

"Thanks, Karen."

Spiderman shoots a line of web out and swings. He chases after the running away vehicle, web yanking his way through obstacles.

Spiderman says to pedestrians watching Spidey chase the car, "Don't mind me, just trying to put no good bad guys in jail."

Spidey lands on the hood of the car and knocks on the roof like a door. Karen alerted Spidey that the hostage was sitting in the back between two robbers. Spidey thanked her before the robber sitting the passenger seat looked out the window. He looked over his shoulder to see Spiderman.

"Hi there, I'm Spidey." Holds his hand out to shake the robber. "Not a shaker?" Shoots a web into his face. "Are you a hugger?" Shoots a web line out to the robber and connects it to a passing street light, the robber flying from the passenger seat. "I guess he was a hanger."

Spiderman punched the window on the back right and yanked the second robber out and threw him into a bush harmlessly. He punches the other window and yanks the third robber out and throws him in the air. Karen sets his web-shooter setting to 'Spider-Web' so Spiderman could shoot out a spider web between two buildings for the third robber to fall in. Spiderman jumps through one of the broken windows with ease and landed in the third robber's seat. He turned to the gagged female hostage.

"I'm Spiderman, your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. (Removes the gag from her mouth) I take it these guys aren't your chauffeurs?"

"Just get me out of here," the woman shouted ungratefully.

"Okay." Spidey turns to the distracted driver and taps him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, can you drop us off at the nearest police corner?"

The driver robber ignored him and kept his hands tight on the wheel and driving forward. Spiderman grabbed him by the back of the hair and punched him in the face. The driver lost consciousness and Spiderman grabbed the female hostage with one hand going around her waist and jumps out the window. The getaway car almost crashes into an incoming police cruise, but Spiderman shot out a strong line of the web at the trunk of the car and yanked back with all his might as he landed on his feet with his hand around the hostage.

The tires leave huge skids marks and black dust behind. The police cruiser comes to a slow halt as the getaway car stops completely and the unconscious driver's head rests on the window. Spiderman released both the web and the unfazed hostage from his grip.

"Next time, call a taxi."

"Sure," the woman said nonchalantly, unfazed or some traumatized to the point where she is unsually unfazed.

Spiderman was left in confusion as the freedwoman walked away. He caught up to her and spoke.

"You could've been killed if I wasn't here to stop those bank robbers. You should be grateful to be alive."

"I am, but I just don't show it. I've survived death more than once."

"Oh really, what do you do?"

"I work as a teacher's assistant at ESU. Major in psychology and I have been attacked by three different crazy people on three different occasions. Coulda died, woulda died, shoulda died, but I didn't. Thank you for saving me though, so you should get going."

Karen suddenly said, "She's crazy."

Spiderman defended her, "She's not crazy."

The woman asked Spidey with a confused brow, "Are you talking to me?"

"What? No, I was not talking to you. I was talking to...myself."

"Schizophrenic boy, just what our friendly neighborhood Spiderman, is."

"No, I'm not a boy, I'm a man." He goes as far as to deepen his voice. "I'm a man."

"You could never do Muppet impressions," Karen joked.

"What?"

"See ya, Spider-boy."

"No, I'm not a-damn it."

The woman just casually walked off, ignoring Spiderman completely. Spiderman took his moment to look over at the police officers loading the unconscious driver onto a stretcher and place him in an ambulance.

"Well, that was quite a save. So Karen, what time is it?"

"It is eight fifty-five a.m. which means that are five minutes remaining before school starts."

"What? I can't be late again."

Luckily for Peter Parker, it was a late start Wednesday and class did not start until nine o'clock. He jumps into the air with a leap and swings off. Swinging from building to building, between running cars, swinging over cranes, Karen constantly telling him how much time was left before he was going to be late. As Spiderman swung, he felt weightless as he flew up into the air and down only to swing up in the air again. One of the things that Peter loved as being Spiderman was swinging.

"There are two minutes remaining," Karen reminded.

"Damn it."

Spiderman shot two webs out both his shooters and they stuck to another crane seventy-five feet away. He yanks forward as hard as he could and launches himself forward in the air.

"One minute remaining," Karen reminded again.

Spiderman made it to Midtown School of Science and Technology. He left his backpack underneath one of the benches on the football field and scrambled to put his clothes over his costume. He was glad that he packed a long sleeve shirt and jeans because his costume was successfully concealed under his everyday wear and he put his mask in his pocket. He ran towards one of the school's back doors while removing his gloves and placing them in his other pocket.

Peter Parker pushed the door open to science. He jumped into his seat next to Ned and Harry. The bell rang just as he sat down in his seat. The teacher focused intently on Peter as he sat down like he was some kind of exotic animals.

"Alright class," Mr. Harrington went on. "The session has begun. Take out your chemistry books and turn to page 132. Today, our subject is going to be mineral resources."

Peter whispers to himself, "I'll just take out my book and work on my web fluid formula for a while. As long as nobody notices."

He already sat in the back of the class, so he should be fine. Ned and Harry were busy getting out their books and looking away, so he was in the clear to open a hidden drawer near his shoes and place a large Erlenmeyer flask inside. When he took out his science book, he made sure that nobody saw the flask when he grabbed a couple of vials with orange-colored fluids. He flipped to the page with the web formula notes and began discreetly mixing the orange fluids in the flask.

"Peter?" Harry called out.

Peter looked up from his experiments. "Yes?!"

"Where were you? Why were you so late?"

Peter struggled. "I uh….overslept."

"On a Wednesday?" Ned asked. "How could you oversleep?"

"I stayed up half the night doing homework….yeah."

"Really," Michelle said in a doubting voice behind Peter. "You overslept on a Wednesday, didn't you use that excuse last week?" Ned and Harry looked at Michelle with suspicious looks. She noticed and explained, "I'm not obsessed, just observant."

Without looking, Peter grabbed a scalpel and dipped it in the flask as it flooded with clear fluids. He removed the scalpel from the flask and found it covered in webbing. He smirked a little and closed the drawer after dipping the rest of the scalpel in the flask. With his chemistry book, he flipped to the assigned page and spent the last hour listening to a boring lecture. Every now and then, he would just take more flasks and make more web fluids to collect during lunch.

Michelle saw him digging through his drawer for something but she could not see what it was.

When class finally ended, he grabbed the corks for the flasks and shoved them into the flasks and locked the drawer and everyone flooded out the room. The second period was chemistry, but there was a sub in for today. Two subs: Miles and Monica Warren, the two biochemists from ESU. They clearly survived the fire, but Miles' hair was looking a little darker than the last time he was seen at ESU. Out of all the students, Peter was the most shocked to see the Warrens.

Miles said cheerfully and began speaking endlessly, "Alright class, hope you guys did your homework last night and turned it in because our subject in biochemistry is going to be a little different than it usually is." He wrote his name on the board. "Unfortunately, your real chemistry teach will not be able to attend and I have to fill in as a sub for the day." He spotted several familiar faces. "I see some faces from ESU." Namely Peter. "What we are going to be studying today, goes back a long way in history. Predates history actually." He stares intently at Peter for some reason. "How many of you know about Darwin's theory of evolution? I should see all the hands."

All the students raise their hands, but Miles was mostly focused on Peter for some reason.

"Parker," Miles called, recalling his name from ESU. "Since you are one of the smartest students in this class as you went to ESU, I would like to hear Darwin's theory in evolution in your own summary."

Peter was thrown slightly off guard but answered regardless, hoping to impress the biochemist. "Of course. Well, not much too it, except that organisms change over time to adapt and survive in their environment. Darwinism as it is called, or natural selection."

Miles was amused and that was why he liked Peter. "A simple summary, but you all get the point, class. Simple organisms like the Arthropleura were large arthropods who went extinct because of climate drying out and the oxygen being not enough to support their big size. However, they managed to survive and evolve into tiny, but predatory invertebrates like centipedes. It could not be more natural than physically changing to survive what Mother Nature plans to throw at you. But what about humans? Humans may be the smartest species on the planet, but we lack the ability to use the other ninety percent of our brain when we use only ten percent of our brain. Dolphins use forty percent of their brains. Ten percent may not seem like a lot, but after all we have built with just the ten percent of our brains like airplanes, buildings, computers, technology, but I would like to think one step further."

Now Peter's interest was sparked slightly and he wanted to know what the current status of ESU was after the fire. He wanted to study his own spider DNA.


	4. IV

"Cloning. It may not seem like it would play a factor in evolution, but it does. One organism of one species on the brink of extinction can't survive on its own. If we were able to achieve the factors of cloning a nearly extinct organism, and we have, then we would be able to make an identical copy of a said organism. But since they share the same genetic makeup, they would be unable to reproduce, so I got to thinking, hybrids. What if we cloned the dolphins' genetic makeup? Dolphins have never been known to survive on land, but what if we took that one step further and embed them with the genetic makeup of an aquatic animal that can live in freshwater. We clone the DNA, mix it with a freshwater animal, and the species of dolphin will continue to live on with innovation if it is successful."

Peter asked, "What kind of animals would there be that could support the dolphin's DNA?

"We are looking for an aquatic animal that can live in freshwater, so a bull shark for example."

"But, how would this help humans if we were to do this process on ourselves?"

"Well, since diseases are primarily that widespread is wiping us out, one thing that we could do is clone our DNA and fuse it with an organism that has a superior immune system. We can't shield ourselves from every weaponized agent, so why not make our immune system stronger. Human hybrids. If it all plans out, then we all humans can become a population of hybrids immune to all diseases and illnesses. I got tons of other ideas on how to make better hybrids. Today, we're going to be doing experiments with replication. We will be dissecting two different species today: A frog and a baby shark. Your job is to gather as much as you can on both species and try to find at least one common factor. By the end of class, since this is the only one hour class period of the day, you and your partner will be provided bags to put the creatures in to take home. Your homework assignment is to analyze and interpret what could happen if these different species were to be combined into hybrids. That is all, so let's start cooking."

Max had snuck into the classroom and tried to walk over to his seat stealthy but Miles caught him. "You're late, first warning."

Max groaned in discontent before taking his seat next to Quentin. Quentin did not waste any time to mock Max by referencing the TV Trope to him, "So Much for Stealth, check."

"Enough with the TV Tropes," Max complained to him.

The rest of the hour was actually a blast. Peter had fun with the frog and the shark, and now Harry was taking the shark home while Peter was taking the frog home. When the bell rang for lunch, Peter stepped into the hallway with his backpack over his shoulders. He ran into Gwen along the way. Since they had the same lunch period, he decided to walk with Gwen to her table, talking nervously.

"Hi Gwen," Peter began, all nervousness vanishing. "I haven't seen you since Homecoming."

"You abandoned me," Gwen reminded and Peter sincerely apologized. "But I'm not gonna hold it against you. I'm sorry for your loss, I wanted to tell you that in person, but never saw you around for a while."

"Thanks," Peter replied, grateful of all the support that he was getting in the mourning of his uncle. "It happened a month ago and we made sure that Uncle Ben got his proper funeral."

"How's your aunt doing?"

"Aunt May? Oh, she is doing fine. We're still trying to pick up the pieces, but everything is working out for now." It was then when he saw an overhead TV with Betty Brant and her co-anchor (whatever his name is) doing a report on Spiderman stopping a bank robbery and car chase.

_I remember Ned saying that he really likes Betty….maybe I should set up a date._

"Did you hear about that spider guy?" Gwen asked Peter as she looked up at the news report. She voiced her interest in the spider as: "One man stopped a car with his bare hands going at forty miles an hour and he locked away four criminals with a passenger in the back."

"Yeah," Peter smirk, proud of all of his accomplishments in his double life. "He must be some guy," a slight hint of enthusiasm in his speech bubble.

"He's not some guy, he's a spider."

Peter suddenly remembered Gwen's love for spiders and he clutched his jaw to contain his excitement. "Oh uh….yeah. He's a man with the attributes of a spider, or maybe it's the other way around." He decided to play with Gwen for her love of spiders. "Maybe he's a spider with the attributes of a human."

"That sounds even cooler. Whoever this Spiderman is, he is a good person for helping all those people." She failed to notice Peter's smile on his face. "I wish I was like him."

"Yyyyyeah, you could be like him if you knew where he was from. He could be an alien for all we know. Maybe he's a woman." He realized his statement and corrected himself. "But if we were to look at Spiderman's torso, he would have a chest, not b-" He smacked his palms to his mouth, unable to say that word out loud in front of Gwen.

"I would love to get to meet him."

"Really? What would you tell him?" He edges slightly closer but not too much.

"I would ask him what does it feel like to be swinging on webs, leaping from great heights, crawl a wall, get praised for saving a life."

Peter already knew that feeling like the beating of his own heart and it felt magnificent. "Well, I'm pretty sure he is happy about his job. If you want, I can ask him myself."

Gwen stared at Peter with interest, ignoring the TV completely. "You know him?"

"Nnnnooo," he had to get himself out of this situation. "But I am applying for a job at the Daily Globe to see if I could get pictures of Spiderman." He just hoped that she would buy it. He mentally slapped himself because he just told a lie and in order to turn that lie into the truth, he would have to go apply right now after school.

"So let me get this straight: You are going to apply for a job at the Daily Globe to be Spiderman's personal photographer?"

"Well," Peter tried to explain. "I mean, I will try to get good shots of Spiderman and then see if the Daily Globe will buy them from me. After that, hopefully, I work there."

"So after that, then the two of you will hopefully have conversations together?"

"Yeah," Peter nodded positively. "Just like that. I'll even have him answer any question that you want."

"If you do get the job and you do become his personal photographer, could you introduce me to him when the time is right?"

Peter's face was frozen completely with a neutral expression. Inside, Peter was fuming with anxiety. _How am I, Peter Parker, going to stand in the same room with Spiderman when I am Spiderman?_

"Uhh….yeah, I'll see what I can do." He pretended to check his watch and started walking. "Well, I should get going, the chicken sandwiches are on limited supply.

Gwen smiled as she stared at Peter walk off with his back turned to her. _He's cute,_ she thought. _He obviously has a crush on me; he asked me to stay with him when he was bitten by that spider._ _Wait, that spider!_

When school ended, Peter raced out the other side of the school. He leaped over the fence and ran off for more patrol. He had been thinking about what he impulsively said to Gwen about being his own personal photographer. It could help him with money and more importantly, help lower suspicions on him being the masked vigilante. It could most certainly work.

Peter decided to 'swing' on over to the Daily Globe to see if they would hire him for freelance. He had photography skills, which is pretty much all is needed to get a job there. Dressed in his casual clothing, he walked from an alley to the tall standing Daily Globe building a block away. As he was walking, he saw a man come out of the front doors in blue jeans and a white sweater with brown hair. From a distance, Peter could not recognize him, but once he got closer, he recognized the man as….

"Eddie Brock." (**Played by Tom Hardy**)

Peter was a huge fan of Eddie Brock and his investigative reporting. Every time the Eddie Brock show was on, Peter would flip to it every single time, not missing a single episode. He had totally forgotten that Eddie Brock worked at the Daily Globe and the fact that if the Daily Globe did hire him, then he would get to work with the Eddie Brock himself. Peter could not believe himself. He knew he had to make a good entrance because first impressions are always important. He licked his hand and ran it through his hair and tugged on his shirt to make sure it wasn't wrinkled and walked up toward Eddie as if he didn't notice him before, stopping only when he passed Eddie.

"Eddie Brock," Peter called out, successfully catching the celebrity's attention. "Are you _the_ Eddie Brock of _The Eddie Brock Report_?"

"What do you think, kid," Eddie spoke, not stopping as he walked. "You a fan?"

Peter shifted directions to follow him. "I'm a huge fan. I have seen every single episode of _The Eddie Brock Report._ I've seen the episode where you uncovered an illegal diamond mine in Madagascar. I've seen the episode where you discovered an underworld caging match headed by the chief of the police force in London. You exposed the Life Foundation for doing tests on homeless volunteers that are more often than not, killed as a result. After that, people called it the Death Foundation, not a single employee ever went flying into outer space again."

To Eddie, this was probably the biggest fan he has ever met. "Well, I'm glad you enjoy the show. I'm actually relocating to San Francisco. Today will be my last day here for a while."

Peter's heart suddenly sank. "What? You're leaving for California and never coming back to New York?"

"It's not permanent; I'll return eventually. My wife has a big trial going on and I have a big story coming up soon." Eddie patted Peter on the shoulder as they walked, smiling. "You'll probably see it both on both the show and on the news."

"What kind of stories?"

"Well, my wife has been called to the biggest court trial of the century to put away the serial killer of the twenty-first century. Me, I get the interview of a lifetime with the twenty-first-century killer."

"I will definitely watch both. I was just about to apply for a job at the Daily Globe," Peter mentioned. "Any advice since you worked there for three years?"

"Well, what kind of job do you want there?"

Peter answered, "I want to be a photographer. I want to take pictures of Spiderman and sell them to the Daily Globe."

"Wow," Eddie said, impressed. "Taking pictures of that web-head vigilante. What a big job. Well listen, kid, there is a reason the Daily Globe is called the 'Daily Globe.' Their stories are supposed to cover the globe. If there was another Bubonic Plague outbreak spreading all over Germany and Poland, then the Daily Globe will be the ones to report on it. Spiderman is stationed only in New York, and the Daily Bugle covers stories specifically in New York. So unless you want to be an all-time global reporter or investigative reporter, then I suggest applying for the Daily Bugle."

Peter struggled to keep a straight face. As much as he wanted to work at the Daily Globe, he realized that with his responsibilities with being Spiderman, that would prohibit him from leaving the country on a regular basis. He only wanted to work at the Daily Globe so he could be Spiderman's personal photographer and indirectly answer any questions Gwen has for Spidey. But since the Daily Bugle was for New York only, Peter decided to take Eddie's advice and decide on applying for the Daily Bugle.

"Well, thanks a lot for the advice Mr. Brock, I really appreciate it." Peter shook his hand one more time before Eddie Brock walked off in the direction of his car and drove in the direction of the airport. Peter was a little saddened that one of his heroes was not going to be here in New York, but for Eddie, he was going to hold his chin high and walk in the direction of the Daily Bugle.

"Excuse me, young man," an elderly voice spoke beside him. Peter turned and saw an old man with white hair and black sunglasses. (**Stan Lee cameo dedicated to Stan Lee**) "Are you that young man from _The Eddie Brock Report?_"

Peter shook his head. "No, I'm not Eddie Brock."

"What?" The old man squinted through his black sunglasses and realized his mistake. "Oh yeah, Eddie Brock is much younger than you are. I'm sorry ma'am." He pats Peter on the shoulder and walks off, leaving Peter standing in the middle of the street, confused.

Peter wasted no time and raced towards the Daily Bugle building and ran inside.

While he was waiting in line for a visitor's pass, he spotted someone sitting on a couch in the visitor's center. He recognized this person reading this book as Michelle Jones.

"Michelle," he waved to her. She pretended to ignore him and continued reading. "Michelle, it's me, Peter." She still ignored him and he decided that maybe this wasn't the right time. The second he turned away, Michelle peaked up at him and stared for a second before looking back down at her book. Why did she ignore Peter, she had no idea why.

Peter threw on a visitor's pass and took an elevator to the top floor. Stepping out of an elevator and into a large office filled with desks and receptionists, he recognizes one face in the crowd near one of the windows and walks near them. "Betty Brant?"

Betty Brant sat in a chair positioned next to a closed window, gazing out into nothing before being called by Peter. She recognized him and smiled gleefully. "Peter, oh my god, what are you doing here?"

"What are _you_ doing here," Peter countered.

"I work here," Betty explained. "I work here just to deliver coffee to and from bosses. I'm a gopher basically. What are you doing here?"

_Maybe I can set Ned up with Betty._

"I'm here to file for a job. I brought my camera in my backpack." Peter was relieved that he knew at least one person mutually at this new place that he hoped to get a job. "I want to be a photographer here."

"Well," Betty began. "That's nice. You want to see the boss, he's in his office. His name is J. Jonah Jameson."

"Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"His son's an astronaut, used to work for some kind of currently disbanded big-time corporation in San Francisco."

_Eddie,_ Peter thought. "Well, thank you for letting me know, Betty. I should be getting a move on if I want to get this job." Peter waved her off and she wished him good luck. Peter was nervous at first but found the courage to walk through those two doors leading to a big office with a big window and a big desk. The man in the chair had his back turned to him and he did not face Peter until the doors closed by themselves.

"Hi," Peter said nervously. "I want a job here."

Slowly and dramatically, the man in the chair turned around and faced Peter. An aging man with gray sideburns and dark hair with a pencil mustache. He had a cigar in his mouth and had a grouchy voice. "Don't we all?"

"Well," Peter began to explain. "I want to be a photo-"

Jameson interrupted him. "What skills do you got?"

"I am good at taking-"

"What's your name, son?"

"Peter Parker. You're J. Jonah Jameson."

"Everybody knows who I am, what do you want and why?"

"I want to be a photographer here at the Daily Bugle." Peter was crossing his fingers, hoping that he would not be declined. "I'm fifteen, but I have remarkable photography skills. I'm president of the photography club back in Midtown."

"You go to MSST? You must be really smart and must have a whole career planned out and you want to be a photographer for the Daily Bugle? Does that just warm my heart? What makes you think you can just get a job at the Daily Bugle?"

Now Peter panicked slightly that he was about to be declined in the job offer. "Well, I figured that the Daily Bugle was having trouble trying to take a decent photo of the Spiderman and I wanted to see if I could get a job here and sell my Spiderman photos here."

Jameson removed the cigar from his mouth, smoke flying into Peter's face, making him cough softly. "Did I get the job?"

Jameson said nothing. For the longest thirty seconds of his life, Peter observed as Jameson put his cigar out in an ashtray. "You really think you can get pictures of Spiderman? Decent pictures of Spiderman?"

Peter swallowed a lump in his throat, sweat starting to seep through his skin on his forehead. "Yes, I think I can get good photos of Spiderman."

"You _think_?" Jameson asked, emphasized the last word. "You don't know if you can get pictures of the wall-crawling menace?"

Peter cast him a confused look upon hearing his alter-ego being called a menace. "I know I _can_ get photos and menace? He saved that bus full of people. I also heard that he saved a woman from bank robbers just this morning or something. Why do you think he's a menace?"

"He's probably in cahoots with those bank robbers. There is something that goes wrong and this freak in a mask shows up. Why do I hear he flees the scene?"

"Maybe he's going to save someone else. He's a hero."

"If he's a hero, then why does he wear a mask? What's he got to hide?"

"Maybe he wears a mask to protect his identity."

"Not protect, hide. He's a criminal who only tries to make New York his own playground! If he was a hero, then he wouldn't be wearing a mask and he wouldn't be stopping the police and fire department from doing their jobs! He's a menace and I intend to prove it! Tell you what kid: You get me some decent photos of that criminal, and maybe I'll give you a job."

Peter gasped with happiness. "Thank you so much, Mr. Jameson."

"You're welcome, Parker," Jameson spoke up as he walked around his desk and patted the young boy on the back. The next thing he said had Peter startled. "Now get out of my office!"

Peter wasted no time and ran out of the room, closing the doors behind him, and back into the big room with Betty. He approached her and smiled warmly at her. "I assume that you heard him shouting in there," Peter chuckled. Betty asked how it went. "He said that if I bring him some photos of Spiderman, then he would give me a job here."

Betty seems delighted by this because she showed him around the office of news reports framed on the wall. "Knowing you, you are a good photographer, Peter. Maybe your picture will be on this wall." Betty showed Peter framed pictures of a news article saying, "Mysterious Burglar Steals One Million Dollar Diamond From History Museum." Another framed report on "Stanley Carter and MacDonald Gargan: Suspects In Assassination."

"You really think I can make it here at the Daily Bugle, Betty?"

"Of course, Pete. Oh, and about your Uncle Ben, I'm really sorry. I know what it's like to lose somebody close."

Peter thanked her for her concern. Peter knew she understood. A couple of years ago, when Betty was around her pre-teen years, her mother and brother, Eleanor and Bennett Brant, were killed in a head-on collision when a truck swerved into traffic after it hit a patch of black ice. Betty and her father were in the car, but only they survived. Peter remembered that Betty could not eat for a whole week. Peter guessed that Betty was starting to remember her mother and brother because a single tear was starting to seep from her tear duct. Peter's emotional empathy leads him to hug and comfort her.

Hours later, Peter finished his patrol as Spiderman and swung home. He had forgotten his house key this morning, so he had to climb into his house through his bedroom window. He never left the window unlocked, and right now, he was grateful that it was nighttime due to low visibility.

Spiderman climbed into his bedroom, crawling across the ceiling to the slightly ajar door and closed it very softly and quietly. Spiderman drops to the ground and starts stripping himself of his costume.

"Peter," Aunt May called out.

"Crap," Peter said before muttering a curse under his breath. He webs his costume to the roof and hopes that Aunt May would not notice again. He jumped into bed and covered himself with the blankets. He quickly reached over towards his table lamp and shuts it off before pretending to fall asleep. Aunt May opened the door to see her nephew lying in bed, sleeping peacefully. She rarely had seen him sleep since the death of his uncle, but it still brought a smile to her face to see her nephew sleeping as that appeared to be the only place where he found peace.

"I guess I can tell you in the morning." She slowly shuts the door, blowing her unconscious nephew a kiss. "Sweet dreams."

Upon hearing the click of the door, one of Peter's eyes opened in the dark. He grumbled to himself; Aunt May wanted to tell him something and he pretends to be asleep? He was slapping himself across the forehead for his stupidity. He sat upon his bed and ran a hand through his hair. He could not sleep due to night crimes, but he could not let his aunt hear him using a radio in his room when it was a school night. Instead, he grabs a walkman, sets it on the lowest volume possible, and puts in one wireless earbud and drifts off to sleep, metaphorically sleeping with one eye open in case there was a crime in progress.

* * *

Back at an Oscorp Facility in Queens, Jackal sat down on a leather couch in his mask, in a small room lit only by a single table lamp and watched replays as Spiderman saved a bus from an oncoming car. This is what he has been watching all morning. He just kept replaying and replaying the single clip for the last seventeen hours.

"That webhead," Jackal spoke softly. "I'll make you better," he viciously declared.

Jackal walked back into a lab of the Oscorp facility. The lab had one gas chamber on the southeast corner of the room while on the northwest corner of the room was a huge tank full of water. Inside the gas chamber, as Jackal scooted closer, was Norman Osborn unconscious in a gas mask with green smoke filling up the chamber. Jackal glared with a smile before looking over to a monitor of computers to his right. The Performance Enhancers were starting to take effect and soon, Norman will lose all of his sanity.

As for the huge tank filled with water, an Otto Octavius stripped down to his boxer briefs slept in the tank with a pair of goggles over his eyes and a breathing tube around his mouth. The process of surgically inserting the four Octo arms to his spinal cord was forty percent complete and the neural interface, one hundred percent ready and prepared for when Otto awakens.

Jackal looked at both prisoners and vowed to their unconscious minds, "If you guys are successful in taking down Spiderman, then I will let you guys be free. Free to be whoever you want, whatever you want and not even _Captain George Stacy_ will be able to do anything about it or _Spiderman."_

Everything he said, had a whole different meaning to it.


	5. V

Peter in his Spiderman outfit, sat there on the ledge of a tall building, waiting for Karen to display some kind of signal that there was a crime going on. He would take pictures of himself for Gwen and Jameson, but he figured it would be too suspicious if he were to take pictures of himself without any action going on. That's why he was lying on his back on the warm roof waiting for some kind of crime to hit. Karen was the only person he could talk to.

"I'm really tired,' Peter said to Karen with his hand on his belly. "I'm hoping that something would happen. So far in the last hour, I've saved a cat from a tree, put out a fire in a tree, cut down a tree, nothing but trees and that's all in Central Park."

Karen spoke back after he was done talking. "You should be happy that no one is dead or in danger. You also got a job at the Daily Bugle, so that is good news."

"Yeah," he agreed. "I guess so, Karen." He inhaled a breath of air through his mask before looking out to see the sun starting to set. "Hey, Karen, what time is it?" Five twenty-two p.m. "Wow, it's getting really late. I'm getting sleepy kinda, so I should be out here for at least one more hour. Tomorrow is Freedom Friday." He put his other hand on his belly.

"What's Freedom Friday, Peter?"

Peter chuckled at the A.I. who did not know what Freedom Friday was. "Freedom Friday is the last day of school for the week. After that, you get two free days without any school that starts as soon as school is over on Friday. It's probably the best day of the week after Wednesday."

"How did you do on your science test today, Peter?"

Peter was surprised that Karen remembered he told her about his test in science. He was proud that she remembered because he was happy to tell her his score. "I aced it; got every single question correct."

"That is good, Peter. How was Aunt May when you told her?"

"I didn't tell her yet, because I gotta finish this patrol and then I get home and then I'll tell her." Karen then asked if Aunt May was aware of his double identity. "No, I'm never gonna tell Aunt May, until I feel like she is ready to hear the truth."

"Why not?"

"Are you serious, Karen? If Aunt May finds out, she will never let me do this. She already lost her husband, she doesn't want to lose me. Whenever she worries, I worry."

"Who knows, maybe she would approve of all the lives you would save. Plus, isn't your motto, 'With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility?'"

"You even remember my motto, but I can't risk anybody knowing my secret. My secret is between you and me, Karen."

"Will you be telling Gwen?"

"That, I am actually conflicted about. I've considered taking off my mask to reveal that Spiderman is actually Peter Parker, but imagine how disappointed she would be if she was expecting someone like Iron Man."

"Who's Iron Man."

"Man, what else don't you know?" He slapped himself for being so mean to her; it just hit her that she was a sentient A.I. being and was capable of feeling hurt. Redips crawled from one of Spiderman's pockets and onto Peter's hand. He proceeded to caress and pet his pet spider lovingly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. He's this character in this Marvel comic that I'm reading. But, what if she was expecting someone else like Tony Stark and not me?"

"I don't know, Peter, but if I was Gwen," her voice took an alluring turn. "I wouldn't be disappointed at all."

"Thanks, Karen, you're so nice to me and I really appreciate it. I just hope that everything works out okay, you know? I mean, ever since he bit me, my life has turned upside down. I'm probably never going to go to college and I will probably never get a good night's sleep without having an earbud in my ear. Plus, I can never tell anybody who I really am and if people find out, my loved ones could be at risk. I will break promises, leave people behind to save others, and I will have to sacrifice the one thing I love to save others. There will be times where I won't be able to save someone, period. I can never get married, I can never have kids, I will never have a family of my own. I am going to die with my tombstone saying 'Spiderman', not Peter Parker and no one is going to remember me. No one is going to remember Peter Benjamin Parker." The realization sunk into Peter's chest like a block of ice.

"Aww," Karen cooed sympathetically. If Karen was a human, then she would be crying. "Poor Peter, you will never be alone. I will always be there for you and I will always be your sidekick. I will be your Karen until the very end of your days. I promise."

Peter's heart warmed slightly over Karen's words. When he first heard 'Suit Lady' in his mask and subsequently named her Karen, and she did nothing but guide him through his suit new weaponry, he always believed that Karen was just some kind of artificial intelligence with no feelings, just programmings on what to say and respond to Peter. But just hearing that one conversation from Karen proved that she was indeed a sentient being and she did grow attached to Peter and vice versa. If there was one thing that Peter could always rely on, it was Karen being there as his guide and friend. Even if she was nothing more than emotional artificial intelligence.

"Thanks a lot, Karen, you really are something, you know that?" he spoke gratefully and genuinely.

"I also wanted you to know, that there is a disturbance currently happening in Time Square, but nothing big to really worry about."

"What's going on?"

"Apparently, there was a small break-in near one of the stores at Time Square, but police were able to apprehend the criminals. Other than that, there is no real crime going on."

"You think I should check it out?"

"If you want to."

"I'll just swing on there just to be sure that everything is alright." He sits up and Redips crawls onto his back, jamming its appendages into the suit to cling on.

Peter jumped off the ledge with a cartwheel and swung from Queens all the way to Manhattan. By the time he got to Time Square, the sky above them was gray and the sun was almost out of sight. Peter swung and clung onto one of the advertising boards and watched the cops load at least a dozen armed criminals into multiple squad cars. "Well, at least the police know what they are doing."

What Karen said confuzzled Peter. "The police have twelve out of thirteen criminals in custody."

"What?" he exclaimed. "Twelve out of thirteen, where's the other one?"

One of the buildings' walls was smashed apart and bricks went flying out there. Spiderman focused intently on a set of huge mechanical arms emerging from the building and into sight. A couple of seconds later, a man with four mechanical arms attached to his back and lifting him off the ground made Peter's eyes widened in shock.

"Holy crap," spoke Karen.

"Holy crap indeed," Peter nodded while staring blankly at the new threat. "Now we got some action." Peter front flipped off the board and swung towards the eight-limbed opponent. As he got closer, he quickly recognized the adversary as Otto Octavius.

Peter leaped from the street light and onto the ground in front of the eight-limbed foe. Peter crouches down in front of Dr. Octopus and noticed that two of the four limbs had bags of money inside them. "So, let me guess, your name is Professor Squid. Science Squid? Octo-Man? Wait, I got it: The Kraken."

Dr. Octopus growled at Spiderman and clutched his left hand. "My callsign is Dr. Octopus. I've been hoping that this would get your attention, Spiderman."

"Ah, you know me," Spiderman spoke nonchalantly. "You know, I kinda know who you are, too. You look a lot like Otto Octavius."

"I _am_ Otto Octavius, you idiot." Using his neural interface, he ordered for the two mechanical arms to throw the bags into one of the police cars. "I would usually give you a chance to let me go free and I won't hurt you badly option, but I am feeling pretty confident about myself."

"Oh what, you think I should be afraid of some robotic arms?" Spiderman mocked. That is until Karen told Spiderman exactly what he was up against.

"You should be a little worried, Peter," Karen warned. "Those four mechanical arms were designed for people with the lack of arms or lack of use for their limbs. They have the ability to lift a tank if they wanted to and the arms can respond to the wearer's commands as little as three milliseconds."

"What? Isn't there any kind of weakness on him?"

"Still scanning for weaknesses, may take a while."

"Ah screw it," he muttered. "I'll buy you time, Karen." Spiderman gazed up at Dr. Octopus and gestured with his hands for him to strike first. "Let's dance, Squidward."

Dr. Octopus smiled first and struck. One of the four mechanical arms suddenly launched themselves towards Spiderman, aiming for his heart area. Spiderman's sense warned him and he backflipped out the way and the arm struck the street. He shot two lines of webbing out towards Dr. Octopus' face. He reacted quickly and used his four arms to block the webbing and yank them towards him, bringing Spiderman with him.

Spiderman yelped in surprise as he flew towards Dr. Octopus, but his quick reflexes allowed him to time and think his next attack. Since he was flying towards the villain, he rotated forwards as he flew until his feet kicked Dr. Octopus in the face. He landed flat on his feet in front of the villain and began punching him, making sure to be alert at all times because his spider sense was going off crazy.

Dr. Octopus had one of his arms grab Spiderman's back and throw him as far as he could away from him. Police officers were about to fire on Dr. Octopus until he struck them first and knocked the police and their cruisers with the criminal inside away.

Spiderman crashed through a window to this one jewelry store and hit a lady in his path by accident. Neither one was hurt, so he quickly jumped back to his feet and swung through the broken window to get back into the fight.

He web yanked from street light to street light to avoid the mechanical arms coming at him way too fast, he almost lost his sense of direction. Spiderman did not risk going back on the ground for he knew it would be defeat waiting for him, knowing that it was always better to stay out of reach.

Even when Dr. Octopus was still out of range, he still proved to be dangerous. Dr. Octopus used his arms to grab a taxi and rip it in four. One by one, he threw the pieces at Spiderman. The young hero was able to dodge the first two while kicking the third one out the way. The fourth one actually hit him in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him. He lands on his side on the concrete ground and Dr. Octopus seizes his chance to grab Spiderman by the leg and drag him towards him.

"I thought you would be more of a challenge," Dr. Octopus mocked. "What a disappointment. I could squash you like a bug right now."

While Spiderman was dragged on his back, he quickly looked around to see what he could use to help him. There was a fire hydrant just a few yards to Dr. Octopus' left. He shoots a web out at the fire hydrant and with a loud groan, pulled it out of the ground, spraying water from its initial spot and threw it at Dr. Octopus.

The former scientist did not see this coming and the fire hydrant hit him hard in the side. He unintentionally forced his arm to release Spiderman. He backflipped onto his feet and shot more webbing at Dr. Octopus in an attempt to tie him with webs. The villain just threw more strikes at him.

"Karen, how's that scanning?"

Karen seemed to hesitate with her answer. "I am about ninety-eight percent done with scanning for weaknesses."

"He's beating me up!" He leaned all the way back horizontally when one of the mechanical arms went for his head. "Karen, give me a web combo!"

"Would you like me to activate enhanced fighting combat and web grenade?"

"Please do!" Spiderman shifted his body vertically to the left to avoid two incoming mechanical arms. Karen sent a message on his visor telling him that his enhanced fighting combat and web grenades were both ready. "Web grenade!" He throws his arm back and then forward like he was throwing an actual grenade.

Dr. Octopus caught the web grenade in one of his hands, but it still exploded and trapped the raging criminal in gooey webbing. Dr. Octopus groaned in anger as he trashed and kicked to get the webbing out of his skin but despite the mythology that spider webs are easy to break, this gooey webbing that covered him was anything but breakable.

"Hey, Doc Ock!" Spiderman charged with all his might. "I'm going to throw you back into the ocean where you belong!" Spiderman leaps, dodging the four mechanical arms and landing on Dr. Octopus' shoulders. He was about to pound his fist into his scalp, but two of the mechanical hands grabbed Spiderman's legs and pulled him out of reach. This did not stop Spiderman as he quickly shot multiple lines of webbing at Doc Ock's face and began pulling back.

"Any time now, Karen," Spiderman desperately urged with a wheeze. "Any time now!" Doc Ock was starting to break through the gooey webbing, but as he tried to keep Spiderman out of reach, the webbing on his face was yanking off his goggles. Doc Ock freed one of his mechanical arms from the webbing and used that arm to help the other hands pull Spiderman away.

The webbing around Doc Ock's face was slowly starting to peel off like a bandaid. Spiderman let go of the webs and went flying through the air. He looked around him as he fell and saw that he was going to fly into an alleyway. He quickly aimed his hands above his head and shot numerous balls of webbing out to create one big spider web for him to safely fall in.

He bounces against the web like a trampoline, but grips onto a web and begins communicating with Karen. "Karen? Please tell me the good news."

He waited seven seconds for a response before the A.I. finally spoke up. "I have found his main weakness." After that, she didn't say anything at all. Spiderman was waiting for her to say something while he kept his eyes on Dr. Octopus as he began removing himself from the gooey webbing, almost free.

"Why aren't you saying anything, Karen?!" Spiderman exclaimed.

"You didn't ask," Karen said simply. "You asked if there was a weakness on him, and I gave you an answer."

"You didn't tell me what his weakness was, though; he's almost about to yank himself out of the webbing!"

"Do you want me to tell you his weakness, Peter?"

Spiderman groaned in frustration. "Yeah!"

"Okay then." Karen flashed several images that she took of Dr. Octopus when he was fighting the villain. "It appears that the four mechanical arms are controlled through a neural link. The most plausible case is that Dr. Octopus has a neural link on his nape. If we were to destroy the neural interface, then he should lose control of the arms." Karen then showed Spiderman an image of the neural link on the back of his head. "I must warn you that it may be extremely difficult to destroy the device with all four arms coming at you."

"Can't we just rip off the arms?"

"Not necessarily. We could tear off the arms, but he would still be able to control them, even when they are detached from his body. We could rip the mechanical spinal cord holding the arms, but that could lead to paralysis or in extreme cases, death. Would you like me to activate the instant-kill mode?"

"What? No! We don't kill and we are not going to paralyze him." Spiderman knew he had to think of something because Doc Ock was just about free from the webbing. "Hey Karen, can you take pictures?"

"Of course I can."

"Well Karen, when I'm fighting Doc Ock, can you send Spider-Drone to take pictures of the fight for the Bugle?"

"Of course, Peter."

The spider emblem in Spiderman's chest detached itself and transformed into a mini-drone in the shape of a spider. Spiderman smiled under the mask as the Spider-Drone took pictures of Spiderman and then at Doc Ock. It flew a good distance off in order to get a better, more believable angle of the fight.

"Hey, Squiddy!" Spiderman launched two webs at the two street lights that Dr. Octopus stood between and catapulted himself. Just as Doc Ock freed himself from the webbing, Spiderman successfully launched both feet into his stomach and sent the former scientist flying back and crashing into the windows of one of the stores. Spiderman landed on his feet with a backflip and crouched down. "There is a reason that octopuses don't survive on land. Since you have eight limbs, you've should've called yourself Dr. Spider."

"Don't mock me!" Doc Ock exclaimed as he pulled himself out of the store. Doc Ock was eager to continue the fight, but the sound of more police vehicles instantly told him that it was better to fight Spiderman in a more secluded area. He turned his back to Spiderman and began climbing up one of the advertising signs, throwing chunks of debris with his free mechanical hands at the police to keep them off his back. The innocent bystanders of Time Square just watched and record as Spiderman wall ran up the building, following the mad scientist.

Spiderman stopped just twenty feet below Doc Ock and his back was still turned to the young hero. Spiderman seized his moment and shot a web at his back. This task was going to be more difficult done than said because one of the arms sensed Spiderman shooting a web for the neural interface and snatched the incoming web and pulled Spiderman up.

"Wow," Spiderman said in astonishment as he flew up in the air and began falling down but still continued to talk. "Did you know that octopuses can camouflage themselves? I bet that is something you can't do." One of the mechanical arms grabbed Spiderman by the leg in mid-air and smashed him into the wall a number of times before throwing him as far as he could off the building. "Oh crap!"

"Activating Web Wings."

Spiderman though he heard Karen's voice correctly. "Web wings?"

Suddenly, he raised his arms out like wings and webs sprouted out from his armpits to his upper arms and down to his waist. The feeling of falling suddenly replaced itself with the feeling of weightlessness. He was no longer falling, but gliding across Time Square like a bat. "Whoa!" Spiderman cheered. "I'm flying!" Spiderman rotates a three hundred and sixty-degree angle just for the fun of it before redirecting his flight path. "I'm the first flying spider in the world! Thank you, Karen!"

Dr. Octopus was stunned as he looked over his shoulder to see Spiderman flying, he actually almost lost his grip on one of his mechanical arms. He regained his posture and resumed his climbing. One of his arms alerted him that Spiderman was about to fly into him. So the two arms that weren't climbing up, they launched at the gliding Spiderman. Spiderman did three hundred and sixty degree turns on both attacks to dodge them and slammed headfirst into Doc Ock's back. Spiderman groaned in pain as he clung to the wall beside the hurt Doc Ock. Karen alerted Spiderman that he has a mild concussion and that he hit the metal spinal cord on Doc Ock's back.

(())(())

Back home in Queens, live news footage of Spiderman fighting the fierce Dr. Octopus was shown on a television set in a living room. Gwen Stacy sat on the leather brown couch and watched with a jaw dropped expression as Spiderman fought the villain dubbing himself, Dr. Octopus. If she had a driver's license and her own car, then she would drive all the way to Time Square just to get a picture of Spiderman or even, get a picture with Spiderman. Then she remembered hearing Peter say something about getting photos of Spiderman. Since tomorrow was Friday, she decided to ask Peter if he went to Time Square to get pictures. She dared not to turn off the television and continued watching her hero. She tried calling for her father, but she could not find him. _He is the police captain, so he is probably already inbound to Time Square. _

* * *

The web wings retracted back into his armpits and Spiderman's world stopped spinning from the mild concussion. Doc Ock was still hurting in the back but was slowly recovering. Spiderman noticed and quickly climbed up the wall and above the villain. He kicked the disoriented Doc Ock in the face. His four arms almost lost their grip on the wall, but Spiderman shot another web at Doc Ock's face to blind him. Doc Ock ripped the webbing off faster with his human arms and used one of the mechanical arms to trap Spiderman against the wall.

Fueled by rage, he began squeezing Spiderman's stomach as he climbed up to their faces were at the same level. So far, one mechanical arm was trapping Spiderman, two others climbing the building, so that left only one arm left to kill Spiderman. "You are getting on my nerves, bug," Doc Ock said with venom in his voice.

"I have a knack for that," Spiderman wheezed.

"I _am_ going to crush you like the insect you are," Doc Ock declared. He wraps the last mechanical arm around Spiderman's head like a snake and began crushing it.

Spiderman groaned in intense pain and gasped for air. He grabs the mechanical arm crushing and attempts to loosen it to no avail.

SWAT officers down below saw that their beloved hero who kept New York safe for a month was in peril. A SWAT sergeant ordered for them to fire at Doc Ock and not a single SWAT soldier hesitated. They fired their MP5s, M16s, and other assault rifles at Doc Ock. The villain seemed unfazed due to his intense focus on killing Spiderman. One of the firing SWAT soldiers took this a step forward and aimed the barrel of an M21 sniper rifle up at Doc Ock. He lined for Doc Ock's back and fired.

The bullet hit Doc Ock in the metal spinal cord just a few inches above his waist. The bullet didn't pierce through all the way, but enough to make bleed and yell in pain for a brief second. This brief second of pain relaxed his grip on Spiderman's head, allowing the superhero to slither out and punch Doc Ock hard in the face.

Doc Ock reeled back in pain and tilted to the side. He was hanging between two vantage points and when he looked back at Spiderman, another foot came in and kicked him hard in the face. He directed one of his arms after Spiderman, but the superhero detected and dodged. Spiderman backflips onto Doc Ock's back and clings to him. He quickly spots the neural interface at Doc Ock's neck and put his index and thumb finger on the device. He forcefully removed the neural interface from his neck, ripping it out and causing Doc Ock to scream in realization.

"NO!"

Terror overcame Doc Ock as he made one last attempt to take out Spiderman. He used two arms to grab Spiderman and throw him high into the air. Spiderman soared like a falcon as he got closer to the ground, but he wasn't worried about himself. Doc Ock was about to fall to his death because he lost the uses of all four mechanical arms.

Spiderman shifted his body so he was facing Doc Ock and reloaded his web shooters. He thrusts both arms out and fires balls of web between the two vantage points that Doc Ock was about to fall through. He shot as many webs as he could before he successfully created a spider web big enough for Doc Ock to fall in.

Spiderman cheered in triumph and shot a line of webbing out and swung across Time Square. He swings down to the ground to get a better view. The Spider-Drone returned back to Spiderman's chest with excellent shots of him fighting Dr. Octopus. When Spiderman saw the police holding Doc Ock at gunpoint in the web, he decided, "The police got this." Confident that Time Square was safe, he leaped into the air and swung away.

As he swung away, someone sitting on a gargoyle displayed on one of the buildings wore a Jackal mask over their face and smiled gleefully.


	6. VI

The afternoon after school ended, Peter submitted the ten photos that Spider-Drone took of Spiderman and Dr. Octopus to Jameson. The chief editor thought that the pictures were top notch and decided to pay seventy-five for all of them, which meant seven dollars and fifty cents for a single photo which seemed extremely low. Then Jameson decided to go four hundred and twenty for all ten photos. Peter happily accepted, and then he heard what the headline for tomorrow's paper was going to be.

_Spiderman: Hero or Menace._

_Mad Scientist Called Dr. Octopus._

Wanting to walk away with all his money, he decided not to correct Jameson and say that Spiderman is a hero. Instead, he just asked if he now had a job at the Daily Bugle. Jameson gave him the ultimatum: Bring more pictures of the web-slinging menace or he was never allowed to step foot again in the Bugle.

* * *

On his walk home from the Bugle, Peter crossed the street and ran into Gwen and she walked passed him. He stopped dead in his tracks and turned towards her, catching up and stopping her. "Hey Gwen," he called out. When she responded, he said what was on his mind. "I just wanted to let you know that I got that job at the Daily Bugle."

"Good job, Peter," Gwen cheered. "You got photos of Spiderman?"

Peter nodded. "Yep. I got photos of his fight with that mad scientist from last night. Took me a long taxi drive. So now, I'm Spiderman's official photographer. Now if you got any questions for him, then you ask me and I will ask him."

"Well, I do have one question for him: What is it like being Spiderman?"

Peter's heart warmed slightly over the answer. "Well….I asked him that question, already." He knew that his answer had to have him stuttering so it would not sound scripted. "He told me that….being Spiderman made him feel happy. He said that being Spiderman….he loves everything about it. He loves swinging on his webs, climbing the walls, leaping three stories….but the one thing he loves most of all, he told me….was saving people."

"Wow," Gwen awed. "I'm just in shock. I just can't believe that you are now Spiderman's friend."

"Thanks…." Peter said nervously. "He's a nice boy….I mean he's a nice man. A very nice man."

"Does he have a girlfriend?"

Peter just stared at her with wide eyes and open mouth. "What?"

"Does he have a girlfriend? Wife? Boyfriend if he's gay?"

"I think that's kind of his private life," Peter used as an excuse. "It's probably better if you don't ask that question."

"I guess you're right," Gwen said as she tilted her head down. "Do you want to go celebrate your new job, somewhere?"

"Celebrate my job as Spiderman's photographer?"

"Of course, Silly Petey."

Peter blushed slightly at her nickname for him. "Yeah, I could definitely celebrate. I mean, I just got paid four hundred dollars for just getting ten photos of Spidey. We could probably go out to eat somewhere. Are you game or something?"

"I'm game. Where do you want to go?"

"I was favoring anywhere cheap, but since I have enough money, I guess we could go somewhere fancy."

"It would be nice to eat somewhere fancy. I have my driver's license, so I could come to pick you up."

"That would be super," Peter chuckled. "I guess I'll look up some fancy restaurants for us to eat at."

"And call me when you find a place, Peter." She slips a blue flashcard out of her pocket and using Peter's shoulder to write on, gives him her number. "I'll see you later, Pete." He shakes his hand before walking away.

"You too, Gwen." Peter smiled widely and kept his eyes on her as he slipped the note into his front pocket. He could no longer contain his excitement and started cheering. "Yeah whoo!" He runs to the nearest person beside him and hugs him tightly. "Gwen just gave me her number!"

"That's good for you," the pedestrian strained as Peter hugged him tightly. "Can you let me go now?"

Peter released him and continued to cheer as loud as he could as he ran home, "I got a date!"

* * *

"Daddy," Gwen squealed as she raced into her home. She spotted her father in her police uniform listening to some kind of chatter on his police radio. He acknowledged her before Gwen spoke, "I got a date. Well, it is somewhat of date, but it is more of a celebration."

George turned to her but kept a neutral face on. "What's the occasion?"

"My friend has just become the personal photographer for Spiderman."

Now George took an interest. "Which friend?"

"Peter Parker. He got a job at the Daily Bugle taking pics for Spiderman and he got the photos. He received a large salary sum and we want to celebrate his new job so we are looking to go somewhere fancy." George said nothing for the longest time as her daughter's smile was slowly fading away from the silence. "We don't have a timeline date down, but I do know that it will be a good time."

George, slowly unwinds the silence, by saying, "You can use my personal car for your date."

"Well, I have a car. It doesn't really seem fair to you."

"Honey, you are going to a fancy restaurant. You are supposed to dress fancy at a fancy restaurant and your car is not exactly in ideal shape. Mine just came back from getting professionally cleaned so you can use it on your fancy night out."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. My only rule though is: Don't bond with Peter Parker."

Not this caught Gwen completely off guard and her smile vanished instantly. "Why not?"

"If a villain is trying to find out Spiderman's real identity and they go to his photographer, Peter Parker, then they could also use you because you are close to Parker. Trust me, never get emotionally attached to Spiderman or anyone connected to Spiderman directly or indirectly. Do you promise, my daughter?"

Now that her father was making her promise not to get emotionally attached to Peter was only making her want to get emotionally attached to him. She really did like Peter and going on this date to some fancy restaurant could let her know a little more about Peter. She was conflicted. She wanted to get to know Peter, but she didn't want to go against her father's wishes. But she made a decision and crossed her two fingers behind her back. "I promise."

* * *

Back home, Peter was in his room with Harry and Ned. Ned was left building a Lego set with one thousand pieces while Peter was looking up fancy restaurants to eat at, and Harry was on the phone with his father, whom he hasn't seen in a long time.

"Dad?" Harry started. "Dad? When are you coming home? I really miss you, Dad." On the other end of the phone, Norman was telling his son that he was almost done with some important business and he would be home before he knew it. Although Harry missed his father dearly, he knew that his father was an important man and he understood why he is unable to make a family schedule. But his father promised that he would make up for his period of absence. "Okay then, I guess I'll see you later. Love you. Goodbye." He ended the call and turned to Ned and Peter. "My Dad is a busy man, but he is almost done with some kind of business partners. Apparently, last night, one of his partners went AWOL and they had to find a substitute, so he should be back in like a week or so."

"That's good," Ned supported. "You know, if my father was a rich CEO, you think any girls would come after me?" Harry asked why. "Because, there is this one girl I like, but I don't know if she likes me. It's probably better if I don't disclose her name."

Harry knew instantly at the top of his head who Ned's crush was and looked at him like he was dumb. "It's Betty Brant, isn't it?"

Ned's eyes widened in nervousness and he almost dropped the building of Legos on his lap. "No…." The nervousness in his voice made him as transparent as a jellyfish, if not water. "How did you know?"

"I have psychic powers," Harry joked in hopes to lighten the mood. "Just kidding. I mean, I have sorta noticed the way you stare at Betty. Like she is some kind of exotic pet at the circus."

"I do not."

"Ned, you stared at her during lunch one time and spilled apple juice on your groin area, creating a very embarrassing stain."

"That did not happen." It did happen and he was desperate to change the subject. "Who do you have a crush on?"

"Liz Allan," Harry said without shame. "The most beautiful girl in tenth grade." He was hoping that Peter would be hopping in on this conversation, but he was still sitting at his computer, looking up fancy restaurants. He tried calling him several times, but only ended up failing.

"I found one fancy place for us to eat," Peter said offhandedly. "It's this restaurant in Manhattan called Keens Steakhouse. That place should be somewhere in my pay range. I have four hundred and twenty dollars, so I should be able to spend at least half or over half and still have enough left." He still only had one suit, and that was the suit he wore to Homecoming and Homecoming was the day his life changed for the rest of his life. "I guess we could go on Sunday sometime in the afternoon."

"You finally getting a date with Gwen Stacy?" Ned asked mockingly. "You think she's gonna kiss you by the end of the night?"

"We are just friends, Ned," Peter reassured more to himself than his friends. "We are just going as friends."

"Where did you get the money anyway? Are you going to wear a suit?"

Peter stopped typing on his computer and rotated towards his friend, Harry doing the same. "Of course I'm going to wear a suit; it's a fancy restaurant and it would be completely out of fashion to _not_ wear a suit. And I got my money at my new job as a photographer for the Daily Bugle."

"Do you even have any suit?" Harry asked. "You could borrow one of my suits if you don't have any suits."

Peter smiled gratefully at Harry. "Thanks, Harry, but I got a suit. I haven't worn it since Homecoming; the night my uncle died." Peter's eyes blinked several times, biting the inside of his cheek just to not cry. "But then again, I wore that suit for Gwen and it would be rude not to wear the same suit." Just as he thought he was done talking, Peter asked, "How are your brother and sister, Gabriel and Sarah doing?" Harry nodded, indicating that they were doing fine.

"Can I be your wingman?" Ned asked, putting the Legos on the floor near his feet with his hand raised. "I think I could be a really good wingman."

Peter shook his head. "No, man. This is a date for just me and Gwen. And plus, I have no girlfriend and Gwen is only my friend so there is no real reason for me to have a wingman."

"Can you at least bring me back something cool?"

"Like what?"

"Like one of the menus. You know, one with pictures."

"You mean a kids' menu? This is a fancy place, not some three-star restaurant. You are not going with me, Ned, and you are not going with me, Harry."

"I didn't even ask if I could go, but I hear what you are saying. Since Sunday is only two days away, I guess we should get moving." Harry put his shoes on and started packing his phone and wallet. "Come on, Ned."

"But, what about these Legos?" He indicated them. "Do I just leave them here?"

"I'll watch it," Peter promised. "I don't mean to be mean, but goodbye."

Ned jumped off the bed and onto his feet, cautious to not crush the Legos. "Please," he begged. "Please, can I go with you? I'll sit in the back, eat my food quietly."

"Goodbye Ned, goodbye Harry and the next time you see your father, Sarah, and Gabriel, Harry, tell them I said hi."

"I will and let's go, Ned."

Once Harry and Ned left the room and closed the door, Peter webbed the door shut from his chair. He ran a nervous hand across his face and spasmed slightly upon feeling Redips crawl on his wrist. "I got a date, buddy," he spoke calmly to the spider. "Do you want to come with?" He mentally slapped himself. "It's probably a better idea if you didn't come with me. I mean, you could bite someone else and make them another Spiderman, so I think for everybody's sake, you should stay here. I got to get ready for my date on Sunday."

* * *

Peter loved the way he was dressed in a suit. He also loved the white dress that Gwen was dressed in (and ironically, the same dress she wore to Homecoming). Gwen parked her father's Corvette around the back of the restaurant and Peter opened the door for her after getting out like a gentleman. "Follow me, Miss Stacy."

"Why thank you, Mr. Parker."

Making it through the front door and into a glamorous looking room with bright chandeliers and waiters and waitresses dressed in neatly pressed outfits. Peter made way to the waitress at the front desk and told her his name. "Table for two, please."

"Name?" the waitress asked. When Peter told her, she scrolled through the computer for his name. "Pepper Parker? Your table is this way."

"'Pepper Parker,' my name is Peter Parker," he complained and the waitress corrected herself. She apologized and showed them a table near one of the big windows with a white cloth on top. "Wow, I can't believe how fancy this place is," Peter said in awe as his eyes circled the restaurant. "I am so happy that I could afford this place."

After feeling like he spoke too much, he decided to take his seat on one end of the table while Gwen sat on the opposite end.

The waitress handed them menus and let them be to decide.

Peter was browsing through the appetizer menu for some tasty food. When he was settled on what he was going to eat, he looked at the prices and calculated them. When Gwen decided on what she was going to eat and told him, he added her prices in his head. As of right now, he was going to spending two hundred and three dollars on food. They both realized that they had the same taste in food because they both ordered Baked Idaho, Prime T-Bone steak, Maryland Lump Crab Cakes, and Hand Cut French Fries. Since they were still teenagers, they could only drink sodas from wine glasses, so they just ordered Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew.

While Peter was waiting for the food, he began conversing with Gwen on his new job. "So Gwen, have you been looking for a job?"

"Well…." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. "I have always wanted to be a model. I've always wanted to be that girl on the billboard." She chuckled a little while looking down. "I know, I go to a science school, but only because my Dad wanted me to. I have always wanted to go to ESU to study fashion and modeling."

Peter nodded, understanding. "Is that what you want to do your whole life?"

Gwen shrugged. "For now. I mean, it's always been my dream to be a model, so I would probably stick to it for a while."

"I….have always wanted to be a photographer. But I never expected to be Spiderman's personal photographer." He offered a nervous smile before asking his next question very carefully. "About Spiderman?"

Gwen listened with eager and scooted forward. "I am listening?"

"What is it about Spiderman that interests you?"

It really didn't take too long for Gwen to answer. "I don't know. For some reason, he reminds me of you."

"What?" he panicked slightly, jumping out of his seat by an inch and a half before sitting back down. "How so?" he stuttered.

"Whenever I look at Spiderman, I feel safe. I mean, I have never seen him myself, but whenever I see him on TV, I feel like there is hope for New York City. The crime wave has been high for the last several months, but Spiderman cleaned the city up."

"And how does that remind me of you?"

"I have no idea, but he reminds me a lot of you. I guess it's just how you have to put up with a lot of abuse from Flash and others, but you brush it off and still manage to ace your classes. I thought I wasn't going to get a date for Homecoming, but you were there. I heard some of Spiderman's jokes on the news and his humor kinda matches your humor. But one thing that really reminds me, is the fact that you helped me."

Peter smiled warmly.

"When this big kid knocked my books down, you reached down to help me back up. Then you had to suffer verbal abuse from that bully, but you continued to help me. Spiderman must deal with criminals on a daily basis, but he still helps people."

Peter couldn't help but smile even more at Gwen. Now he wanted to reveal his alter-ego to Gwen and show her that he was the Spiderman. But then he remembered his conversation with Karen and started wondering what if she really was expecting someone like Tony Stark from those comics. Then again, Tony Stark is a _fictional_ character and he is a _real_ person. But then again, if he were to reveal his identity, that could put her in _grave_ danger. Then again, she could prove to be a very valuable asset to him considering that she is the police chief's daughter and would have access to to the New York's crime database. Right now, he had no idea what to do, so he was going to go with what Karen told him to do. Karen said that if she was Gwen and he revealed his identity to her (despite already knowing it), then she wouldn't be disappointed at all.

_Man, I wish I brought Karen on my date. She probably would've given me some wisdom._ All in all, he decided that he was going to take a chance. He trusted her. As soon as they were done eating, he was going to show her the big reveal. Once the waiters and waitresses brought the food, neither teen said a word to each for the next fifteen minutes as they ate their food away and drank their sodas away.

When they were all done, Peter intended for there to be, which meant dessert. Affogato for Peter and New York Cheesecake for Gwen.

In the end, Peter spends a grand total of two hundred and twenty-two dollars just for his date with Gwen and he didn't regret it. _Going on a date with your crush is definitely something worth spending over two hundred dollars over._

"Well, that was a good dinner," Gwen complimented. "And you're seriously paying two hundred dollars for this?"

Peter nodded. "If you have only one night to be fancy, then you take it." When the waitress came by with the check, Peter paid the waitress in cash along with giving her a tip of twenty percent on the dollar (which was forty-four dollars and eighty cents). Just as Gwen got up from her chair, Peter called out to her softly. "Before we go, there is something that I have to show you."

"What?" Gwen asked with pure curiosity.

Peter's smile gave her comfort that it was going to be a big surprise. "I can assure, it is something that you are going to love." He sat up and like a gentleman, held out his hand and gently wrapped it around Gwen's hand.

"It better be a good surprise," Gwen jokingly warned.

"I promise," Peter reassured. "It is something that you will definitely love. Just follow me outside."

Peter took Gwen outside and they went around the corner into an alleyway. Once they were out of range from people's sights, they climbed up a fire escape onto the neighboring building and all the way to the roof. "Follow me."

"Up the fire escape?"

"Trust me, Gwen."

Gwen laughed a little and followed him up the fire escape. She watched him climb up onto the roof before climbing on herself. But when he was on the roof, Peter was nowhere in sight. "Peter?" she called out, looking all around her. "Where did you go?" She looked over the nearest edge to see the ground five stories below her. "You didn't jump off, did you?" She tried calling out to him several more times before getting no response.

"Looking for me," a voice called out. Gwen snapped around and gazed into the white eyes of Spiderman crouching on one of the edge corners.

Gwen could not believe her eyes. The Amazing Spiderman right here in front of her, she made no effort to hide her smile. She felt like a girl talking to her crush, all tongue-tied. "Hi," she barely managed to squeak out. "Hi, Spiderman?"

"Hi there, Gwen," Spiderman spoke before he fronts flipped off the ledge and towards her. "This is the surprise I wanted to show you."

All of a sudden, she recognized the familiarity in the superhero's voice. It sounded a lot like, "Peter?"

Spiderman grabbed one end of his mask at his neck and lifts it above his head slowly to make sure that Gwen was registering everything perfectly. Peter blushed slightly as Gwen's jaw dropped. He had no idea whether she was shocked or disappointed. To compensate for his nervousness, he tries to lighten the mood by saying, "Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman" slowly.

For the longest thirty seconds of their lives, neither one has spoken a single word. Nobody dared to move a muscle. They were standing at their own corners of the roof, frozen like icebergs.

The first one to break the ice was Gwen when she took one step closer to Peter. The young boy reached a hand out towards Gwen as she got closer and closer to him. Peter's hand met her shoulder and she dove in to kiss Peter on the lips. Peter's eyes closed with a sigh and his left hand went to the back of her head, rubbing into her hair while he tasted the sweet taste of cherry lipstick. The kiss was passionate and deep, lasting for at least several seconds before both mutually pulled away. As they slowly pulled away, their eyes slowly met each other's, Peter's hand on her shoulder moving to rub her on the cheek.

"I always suspected it was you," Gwen whispered. "I was wondering what happened after that spider bit you."

"Well, now that you know who I am, you can ask me any question you want." Peter knew that his entire life was going to be better. Even if they couldn't be together, he felt happy that he told the girl that he loves who re really was and he can trust her to keep his secret.

"I do indeed have a question for Peter Parker," Gwen admitted.

Peter's eyebrows arched with interest. "Really, what would that be?"

"Do you love me?"

And just like that, the entire world stopped spinning. The only thing Peter could feel was the warmth in his heart and hear the beating of Gwen's own heart.

"Yes."

"I love you, too."

They dove again for another kiss. This kiss had more meaning behind it because it was a truly genuine kiss of love. Peter's first kiss, Gwen's first kiss, could not have gone better for either one of them. Peter was always going to remember this moment with Gwen, even when he was one hundred years old because to him, Gwen was his life. Gwen was everything he wanted to fight for as long as he was Spiderman.

Peter removed his hands from Gwen's shoulders. His right hand had his mask and he put his mask over his head as they very slowly broke away from the kiss. All but his mouth was covered by the time they pulled apart. With his mask on, he was now Spiderman and he had one last act of romance. His final act of romance for the night with her, he grabbed her by the waist, looked out to the city, shot a web out and swung across, giving Gwen a fantastic web ride of the city, her whole life changing forever with Spiderman holding her in his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder as they continued to swing across the city.


	7. VII

An entire week has passed since Peter revealed his secret identity to Gwen. He knew that he could trust her because now she was giving him heads up on crimes that aren't even on the radar and she could sneak into public places that Spiderman nor Peter Parker could investigate crimes.

Peter was enjoying himself, laying down in his bed on his back with only his mask on, he was given a bulletin via Karen from Gwen. Peter jumped from his bed and onto the ceiling spontaneously. With his two feet and one hand sticking to the ceiling with his free hand dangling down, he asks Karen what is going on?

"Peter," Karen began in an unusually nervous voice. "It appears that Gwen has given you an update. Apparently, in Brooklyn, there is a building that has been set on flames. The cause of the fire is unknown but currently, the fire department is there and they are saving civilians."

Peter shrugged as he saw nothing wrong with it. "Is that it?"

Now Karen was stuttering slightly. "Well...er...there is also something else, Peter. There is a male with green battlefield armor flying around the city whilst on a glider. He also appears to be shooting rockets and is most likely the cause of the fires breaking out."

"Oh crap," Peter exclaimed in horror as he leaped down. "What are we waiting for, Karen?" He looks around to see where he stored his suit. "Where the hell did I put my suit?" He looked through his memories for help. "The attic!" He snaps his head up to see the attic door on the ceiling. With a thin wire dangling in the air from the door, he grips and yanks with minimal force. The door opens up and his costume fell down, but he catches it. "Karen, ETA on getting to the glider guy?"

"I can't give you an exact destination because he is moving too fast. But I can give you a general idea as to where he is."

"That's good." Peter jumped into his onesie costume, loaded a new cartridge of webbing into his web shooters and closed his attic door before leaping out the open window and swinging into the city. "All right, Karen, give me those general directions!"

"Northwest of Kings County Hospital."

"On my way then."

Spiderman swung from one building to the other, not stopping or slowing down for any reason. When he spotted a helicopter flying in the same direction as he was from behind him, he gained speed on his web zipping. Karen was constantly giving him updates on how far away he was and which direction the flying figure was flying. He was already getting closer and closer to the flyer's general direction, and his spider-sense was tingling with massive intensity, almost as if his skull was about to explode.

Reaching the Kings County Hospital he swung through the air and landed on the roof of the emergency building before leaping to one of the edges on the northwestern side of the building.

His head shifted from side to side like an owl looking for its prey. He kept his eyes and ears alert for anything out of the ordinary. A man flying on a glider would be impossible to miss. Even if he did miss him with his eyes, the almost painful sensation back of his skull would help him.

Spiderman's eyes widened as this spider-sense tingle even more than before as if it was right on cue. His passive, yet powerful powers were alerting him to look behind. Slow motion from his perspective, he turned around and saw a green figure flying a silver glider towards him. This figure was dressed from head to toe in green battlefield armor with his mask looking like an ancient mask of a green goblin. The glider had two large blades protruded out at the front with the intent to stab Spiderman. He backflips as high as he can through the air, getting behind the Green Goblin as he passes his initial resting spot and shoots two lines of webbing at the glider and catapults himself towards it.

The Green Goblin feels two feet hammer into his back and throws him off the glider. The Green Goblin doesn't even scream as he begins his plummet to the ground. Spiderman was going to shoot a web out to save him, but the glider reacted on instant and flew towards the direction the Green Goblin was falling. It was so sudden that Spiderman was yanked with the glider when he did not let go of his webbing.

The glider catches up to the Green Goblin at such amazing speed, almost faster than a bullet, floating under his feet, waiting for him to step on the glider before it flies off with the Green Goblin on. Spiderman almost hit the ground but the glider yanked him with before he could hit rock bottom. "Oh man," Spiderman started to complain behind his mask. "What the hell?!"

As the glider ascended, the farther away Spiderman was from the ground and back into his usually elevated level of swinging.

"You tried to kill me," a cackling voice said. The voice was deep and had a demonic tone to it, something similar to the Joker's voice in _The Dark Knight._ Spiderman turned his head up and saw the Green Goblin staring at him with a devilish smile on his face (although that could've been the mask's default expression). "You tried to kill me, but now, I am going to kill you, Spiderman!"

"Who are you?" Spiderman asked but the wind slamming into his face made him wheeze out the words. "Karen, scan for weaknesses!" To avoid being in Green Goblin's control, he lets go of the webbing and swings off another. He pursues the flying villain as fast as he can but the glider was fast as hell.

"How does the Green Goblin sound for a name?" the villain laughed. "The Green Goblin: Killer of the Spiderman!"

"How about, Jolly Green Tiny? You'd make a fortune selling books." He tries shooting a line of webbing at the villain but Green Goblin ducked out the way and yanked the web out of his hand. "Hey, Gobey?" Spiderman called out in his consistent pursuit. "Where did you get that glider from? Did you find it behind a dumpster because that glider looks like trash?!"

It was a lie. That glider looked as rad as hell but Peter wasn't going to give Green Goblin any satisfaction.

"This trashy glider as you call it can impale you if it wanted to on its own!" Green Goblin taunted, intending on driving fear into the young hero. "It's going to be the death of someone though: You!"

This chase happened all out the city, Spiderman actually swung from Brooklyn all the way to Upper New York Bay. Spiderman was slightly closer to catching up to the Green Goblin, but when he shot a concentrated line of webbing out towards his glider, the trajectory was too low and the webbing just fell towards the earth. Spiderman tried again and this time, he was successful, but he was completely oblivious of how fast the glider was flying because he was being yanked forward by one hand with high speed. He felt like his arm would've ripped itself from its socket.

"Why don't we go somewhere where the police won't shoot at us?" The Green Goblin had a destination in mind and he wanted to make sure it was a location where there would be little to no cops shooting at them. Spiderman struggled to keep a grip but heard what the Green Goblin said and wondered exactly what he meant. His lists of where the goblin was taking him were narrowed down to an island over the ocean that had a huge green lady holding a torch.

"Liberty Island?! Are you kidding me?" Spiderman shouted at the top of his lungs.

"No," Karen buzzed in suddenly. "He's right."

It was too late to rethink anything because the glider was already flying over the water and towards Liberty Island. Karen already alerted him that a fall from a height of one hundred and twenty feet and into the water would most likely result in death by blunt trauma. Spiderman groans in frustration and starts panicking slightly once he feels his palm slip from the webbing and hanging by his index and middle finger.

The Green Goblin saw something that piqued his interest as he closed in on the island. "A ferry full of sweet innocent people? All wrapped up like a Christmas present to be blown up by me? How wonderful!"

Spiderman's senses went off and Karen alerted him that the goblin's glider was about to launch an anti-tank missile towards the orange ferry on its way to the island. Spiderman's eyes widened as he stole a glance at the ferry and thought of all the people that were going to die. "NO!" He had to do something because his senses were telling him that the villain was going to fire in three seconds. He could not shoot a line of webbing out so he had to think of something else. It took him a half second to come up with a plan and another half second to activate. "KAREN, TASER WEBS!"

The taser webs activated and a stream of electricity shot out from his web shooter and along the line of webbing that he was being dragged from, and towards the glider just as it fired the anti-tank missile. Green Goblin groans in pain as over a thousand volts of electricity course through his body and the glider and causes him to lose his balance. While that is not it, the glider spins out control and the anti-tank missile is nevertheless shot out but falls harmlessly into the ocean.

Green Goblin falls towards the ocean too, but Spiderman does everything in his power to save him. The glider did not come back to retrieve the rider, so let go of the webbing he was clinging on, shot a harmless web out towards the Green Goblin and shot another web out onto the Statue of Liberty, barely being within range.

Spiderman nosedives faster towards the falling Green Goblin, catching him with one hand before swinging into the air and landed on the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Green Goblin broke free out of Spiderman's grip, causing them both to fall to the green floor of the statue. Spiderman hit his back hard against the wall, huffing the wind out of him, and Green Goblin simply landed on his feet and glared at the downed Spiderman with malice.

"Honestly, you just should've let me fall to my death," Green Goblin spoke demonically as he walked towards the hero. Spiderman heard that demonic voice and slowly crawled to his feet. "You didn't kill me, now I'm going to kill you." Spiderman's sense went off but it was too late. Green Goblin already punched him in the stomach with another blow clipping him in the jaw. Spiderman toughed through the pain and went to punch his enemy in the face, only for Green Goblin to catch his fist mid-punch. "Impressive," the Green Goblin mocked with a smirk under his mask.

Then there was that electricity feeling again. Karen activated the taser fists and shocked Green Goblin back. "Thank you, Karen." He whacked Green Goblin across the face with the other taser fist.

"You're welcome, Peter. Scanning for weaknesses."

Spiderman kept on hammering the goblin's face with punches, not stopping for anything. The punches were sending the villain a step or two back and over the edge. Spiderman had no intention of letting him fall to his death, but he wasn't going to leave him conscious either. The next taser punch he aimed for the back of his head, only Green Goblin had regained his senses and ducked. He came back up at Spiderman with a powerful uppercut.

Spiderman is shot weightlessly up into the air, coming down hard on the concrete floor just a few feet away from Green Goblin. The villain leaps forward towards him with a front flip and kicks Spiderman hard against the sternum. He kips up and tries to trap the goblin in a web, but the villain was faster. He was already leaping forward with his feet connecting to Spiderman's face. Spiderman was dizzy under the mask, lightheaded and world turning black. He was now seeing three Green Goblins.

"Peter," Karen called out after thoroughly scanning Green Goblin. "I'm afraid that there is no visible weakness on Green Goblin, but he can be tired out."

"Tired out?" He swung at the wrong Green Goblin. "I tire him out?"

"There is a faster way to defeat him. I could activate the instant-kill mode."

Spiderman yelled out in opposition. "No killing!"

Green Goblin chuckled at Spiderman and scooted around him. "No killing for you, just me." He reeled his fist back and threw it forward, aiming for the back of Spiderman's skull.

The only thing that saved Spiderman by dodging the punch was that his spider-senses gave him one-one hundredths of a second warning to think and plan. Spiderman leaned forward to dodge all the way, avoiding the punch and kick Green Goblin back.

Spiderman backflips towards the Green Goblin and kicks him hard across the kaw. Green Goblin counterattacks with a few strikes. He grabs Spiderman by the waist and threw him across the concrete ground. Spiderman shoots a web at Green Goblin's face to blind him. Green Goblin groans in frustration and rips the webbing out of his eyes. Spiderman already jumped back to his feet and bear hugged tightly. "TASE!"

Karen activated the suit's taser and electrocuted the Green Goblin with seven thousand volts of electricity. Even the webs around his eyes were electrified and the Green Goblin lost all traces of strength within him. The blood inside the Green Goblin's veins felt like they were being turned to stone, which caused him to yell out in anger and rip his opponent's grip from his body, forcefully tearing out the webs in his eyes and punches Spiderman hard in the face, his two fists connecting to his left eye lenses, snapping Spiderman's head back.

Spiderman felt like he was falling in slow motion. The metallic taste of blood coated his tongue and his back hit hard against the ground, knocking the wind out of him. He yelps in pain as he feels the muscles inside him tense up. Then he felt his left eye hit by cold air and the fingers to his left hand went to touch his eye. He couldn't feel his spider lense, indicating that the goblin broke it and exposed his hazel eye.

Green Goblin charges to Spiderman kneels down to one knee, grabs him by the arm and yanks him to his feet to deliver another uppercut to his jaw. This time, Spiderman toughed through the pain and was earned another hit from the goblin. He was almost about to push hit goblin, but Green Goblin shoved him back with a powerful kick to his chest.

Spiderman flew across the ground and almost went flying off the edge but a single grip onto the ledge wall prevented him from falling to his death.

"Peter, you have a serious concussion!" Karen warned with concern. "Your heartbeat is one-seventy-five beats per minute. You have sustained several bruises on your jaw and your cheek is bleeding. You bit your tongue also. No major injuries, but you will be bleeding profusely from the tongue."

"How do we take him down, Karen?" he mumbled with his bruised tongue.

"Tiring him out," Karen suggested. "You have tired yourself out and with a few more punches, he will be able to beat you."

"Isn't there any kind of web variant or super combo movie that we can use that will beat him?"

Karen searched through her systems for a web variant or super combo that would be enough to withstand the Green Goblin. Her searches ended in failure. "There is nothing. There is only one way to beat him."

Spiderman panicked upon deducing what the only way was. "No instant-kill mode!"

"I will activate instant-kill mode, then I will tone it down to the lowest setting possible so we will exhaust him faster. Then, I will deactivate the kill mode and let you do the rest."

"No, Karen," Spiderman objected as he hoisted himself up slightly. "I don't want to risk killing."

"PETER!" Karen yelled into Peter's eardrums, startling him. "Trust me! We are not going to kill anyone! I promise. I don't want you to die!"

Green Goblin went over to the edge to see where Spiderman had landed and was satisfied to see him still hanging on, talking to himself and unaware of his presence. He wrapped his hand tight around Spiderman's upper arm and yanked him up. He threw Spiderman to the ground and stomped on his web shooters with so much force that they crumbled and webbing spewed everywhere.

"No more taser webs, Spiderman," Green Goblin said vindictively. "I am a little disappointed that this fight didn't last as long as I expected it, but it brings me great pleasure to know that I'm gonna squash you like a bug. I promise to make this slow so your eyes can slowly close as you die."

The Green Goblin lifted his leg and placed it slowly on Spiderman's temple. As Spiderman felt the boot against his leg, he thought of all the people in his life that he would no longer see. Aunt May, Harry, Ned, Betty, Jameson, Eddie Brock, but most of all, Gwen.

He was not going to lie there on the ground and die, he was going to fight to survive. "Activate kill mode!" he shouted as soon as he felt the weight being to press down on him.

"Level One: Instant Kill Mode: Activated."

Spiderman's only eye lens turned red and he punched Green Goblin in the leg. The blast was powerful enough to shatter the bones in Green Goblin's leg. He staggered back and growled in pain, but his regenerative healing factor was starting to take place. Spiderman kips up and punches Green Goblin a few times across the face.

The kicks and punches were coming much faster than the Green Goblin could detect and it was tiring. His mask was split in half and exposed his left eye and some of his red hair.

When he finally couldn't take any more punches, he scooted back towards the ledge and raised a hand in defeat. "Wait, I surrender!"

Spiderman witnessed his enemy's visible defeat, but this did not stop him from doing anything else, only for him to tell Karen to deactivate instant kill mode. Once that was deactivated, he grabbed Green Goblin by the chest and punched him in the stomach three times. Green Goblin folded over but was yanked back up to his feet. Spiderman punched him several times across the face, jaw, stomach, and chest and they were all causing pain to Green Goblin that his regenerative healing factor was starting to retard.

Green Goblin collapsed onto his side and stared at the superhero in horror and resumed raising his hands in defeat. "Wait, stop! Stop! I give up!"

Spiderman reeled his hand back to finish Green Goblin off until he saw Green Goblin's brown eye color and red hair that looked familiar to Peter.

The Green Goblin peeled off his mask slowly to reveal the scared face of Norman Osborn. Spiderman's eyes widened and the Goblin noticed it through his exposed eye. "Norman Osborn, is that you?" Spiderman lowered his fist and stepped back from Norman in horror. "You're the Green Goblin? You set those houses on fire?"

He was expecting Norman to justify his answer or even beg for forgiveness, but he got something else. "I didn't do it, it was the Goblin! I couldn't stop him! He tried to make me kill people, please help me!"

"What are you talking about?" Spiderman asked. "That was all on you. There is no one else to blame but you. You could be tried for assault and battery, arson, and attempted murder." Spiderman took a step closer. "You tried to kill me; how could you do something like that?"

Norman threw the mask over to the side and laid his back against the ledge. "I would never do something like that," Norman attempted to convince. "I had no control over my actions. It was the Green Goblin, he did everything. I was just a hollow shell, a vessel for something of pure evil. You have to believe me."

_Split personality,_ Spiderman deduced. _Maybe he had no control over his actions. Maybe he really is sorry and that he really is a hollow shell for something pure evil._ "Scan," he muttered to Karen. She did a quick scan of him to indicate if he was telling the truth or not. The flashing green light in his lens that is still in contact told him that he really was indeed telling the truth.

"What happened to you, Mr. Osborn?" He suddenly thought of his friend, Harry and what he would think if he saw his father like this. He could not allow that to happen; Harry would be devastated that his father was a criminal. "Tell me what happens from beginning to end and I will make sure that you get the best help there is."

"Thank you, Spiderman," Norman said gratefully as he sat up. "I don't want to hurt anybody." There was still an ounce of the Green Goblin trying to take over the helpless man's persona and was partially successful in getting Norman to discreetly press a push pin sized button on his leg to signal his glider.

The glider very silently ascended up to the top of the statue with the same blades that were attempted to stab Spiderman earlier with protruded out at the front.

"Someone," Norman began. "Someone gave me something that made me go super strong. Enhanced reflexes, insanity." He looked down in shame. "He wore a mask and he never showed any of his skin. He also kidnapped Dr. Otto Octavius and put inhuman arms on his back. He wanted me to kill you."

Spiderman held his hand out to Norman to indicate that he could trust him. "Let me help you. Together, we can find him and we can bring him to justice for what he has done to you."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, my friend," Norman said abruptly. "That serum my friend gave me and Otto, they didn't break our sanity, because we never had any sanity, to begin with. That serum, brought us to realize what we really are and it made me realize, that I like being this way." Now he was no longer Norman Osborn. He never was Norman Osborn and he was always meant to be Green Goblin and Otto Octavius was always meant to be Dr. Octopus. "I have an exceedingly pressing appointment elsewhere." Spiderman narrows his eyes and looks at Norman with shock and sadness that he is unable to save his friend's father.

"I'm giving you a choice to come clean, Mr. Osborn," he tried to warn.

"My ambitious foe, my choices are unlimited." Spiderman's senses went off, causing him to gasp in horror as he feels the tingling feeling of the Green Goblin's glider rocketing towards him with the blades aiming for his heart. "It is you who-"

Spiderman backflips high into the air and the glider flies for Norman's chest, piercing him in the chest. Spiderman lands on the edge he was hanging off of and snapped his head towards the stabbed Norman, the blades of the glider deep into his chest and blood starting to leak everywhere and Norman yelling in pain. Spiderman gasps in shock as he witnesses the father of his best friend slowly fade away from existence, the guilt seeping into him like a bookshelf falling onto him. The last words that he heard Norman ever utter was: "You will pay…."

Peter started crying under his mask, one tear running down his mask from his exposed eye as he held his head down in mortification. "I was supposed to save him….and he died….."

"Maybe it was for the best."

Spiderman snapped his head to gaze over to a new person who had just somehow snuck onto the very top of the statue. Dressed in all black with a jackal mask over his face and was leaning over the edge in a suicidal way. Spiderman jumped off the edge and turned his body to face him, prepared to fight if his spider-senses alerted him of it. "How'd you get up here?"

"Same way you did," the Jackal said in a deep voice. "I climbed up here like a spider." The masked figure turned its head to Norman's corpse, Peter unable to read his face or emotions (if any) due to his Jackal mask. "Died by his own glider, that is some insane irony."

"Who are you?!" Spiderman shouted, trying to sound threatening, only to fail pathetically.

"The Jackal," he answered proudly to the hero. "You are aiming your fists at the wrong man." Jackal took several steps towards the masked hero, "I stopped the Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus from doing any harm."

"What are you talking about? I'm the one who stopped them."

"You only stopped them because I wanted you to stop them," Jackal argued. "If it wasn't for me, you never would've unlocked your greatest potential. Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus were perfect enemies for you. Just to kill you and you unleashed your greatest potential and defeated both villains. I am the one who gave them their abilities."

Suddenly, the rage within Spiderman was about to spike. "What?"

"Not for any malice reason, but to show New York City that New York really is safe with Spiderman. I recorded your fights with both villains, about to publish both to the web to show New York that if Spiderman can defeat two of the most powerful villains in this city, then he really can keep this population of eight million people safe." The Jackal leaned in closer on Spiderman. "I don't care who you are under that mask." He mentally took a picture of Peter's exposed hazel eye in his memory. "If it weren't for me, then your fame never would've been expanded."

"I'm not looking for fame, I'm trying to protect the people of this city."

"You can only protect the people of this city for so long before they want you to fail, die trying to save a little boy from being crushed. They will eventually hate you, one way or another. I mean, look at the Daily Bugle. I am trying to make New York safe by unlocking your full potential and increasing your popularity so people will not want you dead and maybe even save you from another villain in the future."

"Creating and unleashing Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus is just as inhumane as killing a person," Spiderman argued.

"They were already corrupt," Jackal snapped. "Because of me, you gave people hope that there are still good people out there and that the Amazing Spectacular Spiderman is a good guy that we should all adore. You owe me that much to keep the city safe."

"Your heart may be in the right place, but your actions are inexcusable. People would have died because of you."

"Could've died if it wasn't for Spiderman to save the day! You should be thankful that both villains are stopped for good. Dr. Octopus, I executed in his jail cell so he would never break out again. Walked right in there, and snapped his neck at a one-eighty degree angle."

"You're a murder!"

"No," Jackal justified. "There are two types of people that this city needs: Those who will do what is right and those who will do what is necessary. Killing Dr. Octopus and let's face it after you defeated Green Goblin, I was going to kill him anyway. Call me whatever, we both made sure that these villains would do no one any harm from this point on. You should be thanking me for doing what is necessary."

"I understand what you are trying to do, but it's wrong," Spiderman argued.

"Sometimes, doing the wrong thing is the most necessary thing to do in order to protect people. From here on out, I'm going to help you take down criminals and I will kill only if it is necessary. Trust me, I am an exceptional spotter when it comes to crimes." The Jackal looked over the edge and then back at Spiderman. "Now if you excuse me my ally, I must be leaving. I have a dinner that I must attend to."

Spiderman threw a punch to Jackal as soon as he turned his head. Jackal deflected the blow and pushed Spiderman back. The hero tries shooting a taser web at him, but Jackal was far too fast and dodged it before leaping over the edge with an exceptional jump into the air and nose diving into the ocean.

Spiderman couldn't pursue him in the water and was left sitting there, rubbing his head, thinking of what to do next.


	8. VIII

"Peter," Gwen squealed as Peter walked into her home. His wounds were healed with his healing ability, but his tongue was swollen purple from his fight with Green Goblin the day before. He could barely say a word that starts with S without mumbling a single word. "You made it five minutes early." She hugged Peter tightly and welcomed him into her house. "If you have to go to the bathroom, it's the first door in my hallway on the right," she said as she showed.

"Thank you," Peter thanked Gwen and himself for not mumbling. "When can I meet your father?' He was a little nervous about meeting Gwen's father for the first time because he knows how the minds of fathers of daughters worked: No one is good enough for their little girl. Well, hopefully, he was going to redefine the way that fathers think.

"Peter," a new voice called out from the living room. Peter and Gwen turned their heads to see a tall man with dirty blond hair walk up to them and study Peter hard. The man was dressed in a gray suit with a tie on, indicating that he had somewhere to be tonight and could not stay long for dinner. "So, you must be Peter Parker, correct? My daughter has told me a lot about you." He held his hand out, waiting for Peter to shake it. Peter's grip was surprisingly strong and he didn't even realize it. "That is some grip."

Peter became suddenly aware how much of his subconscious spider-strength was showing by shaking George, so he released his grip slightly to make a softer handshake. "Nice to meet you, _sir_," Peter mumbled on 'sir' before rubbing his combed hair in the process, embarrassed at his slight speech pattern. "I hear that you are the police captain."

"That is correct. I hear that you take pictures of that Spider guy for the Daily Bugle. A job paying well for you?" Peter wanted to talk, but he spared himself more embarrassment by just nodding respectfully. Then George looked at Gwen with a glare that sent some kind of secret message that Peter could not comprehend. "So are you hungry? We made lasagna."

"I love lasag_na_," Peter choked, swallowing a huge gulp of spit down his throat to focus. "I've been _starving_ myself all morning for this dinner here."

"Well then, you won't be disappointed because my wife makes the best kind of lasagna." George then tilted his head when he stared Peter into the eyes again. Then George twitched slightly and his smile faded for a very brief split second.

Peter was taken to the table where he was introduced to Gwen's mother, Helen, younger brother and sister, Paul and Jill Stacey. Peter remembered to be polite and to not say anything rude and to always be smiling and to make sure that he didn't open his mouth a lot to the point where they could see his swollen tongue. He cut the lasagna on his plate and maybe he spilled some of his food into his soda inadvertently when no one was looking so he had to drink the cup of soda whole with the food in it to avoid humiliation. After that, he had to politely ask for a refill but other than that, the night was going really well. Peter was having a good time getting to know his girlfriend's family.

"So Peter," fourteen-year-old Jill Stacy called to her sister's boyfriend. "How is it that you are able to get pictures of Spiderman?"

The fork with the food was halfway to his half-open mouth when she asked and he had to think of an excuse. "_Spiderman_ gives me a call." He then realized that he now had to explain it. "_So_, when _Spiderman_ battled Dr. Octopus in Time _Square_, I was already there with my camera. Right place at the right time. Just before he left, I _stopped_ him for a couple of pictures and asked if I could be his personal photographer. We both came to a mutual agreement and now whenever he is on his way to _stop_ a crime or _supervillain_, he would give me a _buzz_ on where is going and I try to get there as quickly as possible." He was praying that his excuse sounds realistic because everybody was looking at him like he was stupid, especially with him mumbling through his purple swollen tongue.

"Wow," Jill said in awe. "Just, wow."

"It takes a lot of guts to do what you are doing, Parker," George said suddenly. "Not a lot of people run towards the crosshairs when there's a fight."

"In order to be a photographer, you have to have guts," Peter justified, constantly mentally slapping himself for mumbling.

"It's not just an act of strength, it's an act of sacrifice," George explained. "You see, people like Spiderman, he attracts people who were already messed up in their own ways. There is just no way for anybody to counteract it because that is the way of life. It's always going to be Good vs. Evil but we have to know what Good is and what Evil is."

"_Spiderman_ _saves_ people," Peter nearly choked on his food as he spoke.

"That may be true, but people could die because of him. If someone were to find out the man behind the mask, then all hell could break loose. I mean, sure, Spiderman's heart may be in the right place, but, he just doesn't do what is necessary."

"What do you mean?" Peter hoped that Gwen's father could make things more clear with him for his secret alter-ego.

"So he locks up this Otto Octavius man with eight arms calling him, 'Dr. Octopus' fully aware of the fact that he could just very well break out and cause even more damage. I'm not saying that Dr. Octavius deserves to die, what I am saying is that maybe the worst of the worst criminals are just better off in a coffin."

Now Peter was hoping that he could change George's views. "Well, it doesn't have to be like that all the time. I mean, if the worst of the worst die, then there is no way for them to face true justice."

"Say Spiderman catches a serial killer, who has murdered over eighty-five people and he is released from prison because there is not enough evidence against him. We all know he is the killer, but the facts are wrong so they release him as a free man. Is that justice? Is it justice where a serial killer is set free to kill more while the police are on a wild goose chase? If we were to put that man to sleep permanently, we could save hundreds of souls, possibly even thousands of souls."

"But it wouldn't be right. I've actually _spoken_ to _Spiderman_ \- a very nice man - and he believes that you _should_ always do the right thing even if it doesn't _seem_ right."

"But there is a blurred line in the sand between what's right and what's necessary. Sometimes doing immoral action is the necessary thing. Sure, the right thing is never the wrong thing, but the right thing might be the necessary thing to do."

Gwen put a stop to the conversation by saying: "Is there room for any leftovers?" She quickly disputed the tensions between her boyfriend and father quickly and went to go put her plate in the sink. "So, Dad? Where are you going?"

George looked at his wristwatch and realized what time it was. "Crap, I gotta be down at the station in fifteen minutes."

"What's going on?" Peter asked, curious about whether it was a situation that required Spiderman. "Is there some kind of crime?"

"No," George shook his head. "Today is a recruitment day for rookies. They need me to be at the station to teach them the basics. Sadly, this is something that I can't decline." He got up from his seat, Gwen tossed him his keys and he moved to the front door. "I'm sorry that we couldn't get to know each other any better, Mr. Parker," George said regretfully without even looking at Peter. "Take care of my daughter when I'm gone, understand?"

"I will," Peter swore. Peter watched Gwen move from the kitchen to hug her father goodbye. "It was nice getting to meet you, Mr. _Stacy_."

George closed the door behind him to leave Gwen standing there at the door, staring into emptiness. Her head slowly tilted down, thinking that it was sad that if George Stacy and _Spiderman_ met, then they would never be friends. She attempts to do her hardest to replace her sadness with something else and that was only achieved when Peter walked up to her and leaned his head on her shoulder.

"You okay?" Peter slowly wrapped his arms around her back with affection. "You seem a little down."

Gwen put her hands on his arms and leaned back on him. "Nothing, just thinking how the two people that love me will never get to love each other."

"Hey," Peter began. "_Spiderman_ doesn't love you, _Peter Parker_ love you."

"Dad made me promise to not get attached to someone connected to Spiderman…"

"But you broke his promise," Peter finished. "You know, broken promises are the best kind there is."

Gwen's face went from a sad expression to a small smile, but a significant smile of happiness.

* * *

"What?"

"I'm telling you," Peter confirmed. "Norman Osborn, Harry's father, was the Green Goblin." Peter paced around the middle of Gwen's room. "Just twenty-four hours ago, the CEO of Oscorp tried to murder me in cold blood and I had to activate instant-kill mode to take him out." For inexplicable reasons, most likely out of impulse, Peter leaped from the floor and onto the ceiling, pacing back and forth. The door was already locked and his Spiderman suit was concealed under his long sleeve shirt tucked into his pants. "I don't like killing people, but Karen told me the only way to take him out was to activate the instant-kill mode."

"Who's Karen?" Gwen suddenly wondered and asked with suspicion. "Is she a cousin, friend...you brought her with you on your trip to the Statue of Liberty so obviously she knows about your identity."

Peter suddenly realized what he said and reached up into his front right pocket to pull out his mask. He walked above Gwen's position and handed it to her. "Put on the mask and _speak_ into it."

Gwen gazed upon the mask that her boyfriend wore in her hands with admiration and star-struck feelings that only a fan could get when they receive something from their idol. She turned the mask so the eyes were lined with hers and she placed it on. It fit like a glove and she could see clearly as if she had nothing on. "Hello?"

"Hello, Gwen?" Karen spoke into Gwen's ear, startling her slightly. "Peter has told me so much about you and is it awesome to finally get to meet you in person? Feel free to ask me anything."

"What are you?" For starters.

"I am a natural-language user interface artificial intelligence. I am Spiderman's sidekick."

"Wow, what can you do?"

"Well, I can identify an enemy's weakness, activate a number of different web combinations, help improve his combat skills, and I can record everything that Peter sees through this mask, I even can just converse with him.'

"How did Peter get spider powers?"

"I got bit," Peter answered for Karen from the ceiling. "This is my other _sidekick_." He reached into his left front pocket to pull out a container the size of a half dollar with Redips inside. "This is the _spider_ that bit me." He showed her the container, making Gwen jump in surprise. "Remember at E_S_U? The unknown _species_ of _spider_? This little guy gave me my powers."

"Really?" Gwen yanked off the mask and took the container in her own hand. She marvels the container with Redips inside and smiles gleefully. "What can he do?"

"He has human-like intelligence, can follow my orders, and I have a tiny camera attached to him so he can _sneak_ into places that I can't. He's my _seeker_ and eye in the _sky_."

"That's cute of him." Gwen watched Redips move around a bit before she hands back the spider to Peter. "What does it feel like being Spiderman?"

"It feels awesome for _starters_, but extremely _stressful_ because of the weight of the responsibilities. I mean, how am I going to tell Harry that his father died and will I ever balance a normal life? I mean, you are the only person that knows who I am beside Karen and Redips." Peter reclaims his mask and puts it back in his pocket.

"You can still balance a normal life," Gwen insisted and she stood up and lined her head with Peter's upside-down head. "I will help you with your Spiderman life. I know that there are going to be risks, but I want to face these risks with you. Nobody else but you." She put her hand awkwardly on his shoulder.

"I don't know," Peter said uncertainty. "You are my life. You are my life and I don't want you to die if my enemies find out about you."

Gwen put her head to the side of Peter's head, her breath hot against his skin as she said, "Guess what? You are my life, too."

Gwen gently gripped the back of Peter's head and they awkwardly embraced with Peter hanging upside down on the ceiling. Once they broke away from the embrace, they kissed each other tenderly on the lips. A romantic upside-down kiss that would surely make the books if he was in his costume. The kiss lasted what felt like forever before Peter slowly and reluctantly pulled his head back, making a frowny face so it would look like a smile from Gwen's perspective.

All of a sudden, a series of sirens started blaring outside. Peter turned towards Gwen's only window in the room with disappointment. He hops down from the ceiling and attempts to open the window. Gwen helped open it for him while he stripped out of his clothes, threw them on her bed, and jumped into his costume. When she turned back after successfully opening the window, he was in his superhero costume save for his mask, which he held in his hands.

"That kiss…" Peter began as he slowly put on the mask. "I gotta admit, that kiss, felt…"

"Awesome?" Gwen suggested. "Lovely? Iconical? Un-Superficial? Genuine?"

"I was going to say that kiss felt like something that was going to stick with me for the rest of my life." He placed the mask over his head and became Spiderman. "I'm sorry, but I gotta go."

Spiderman leaped to the window jamb, crouched down, took one last glance of Gwen over his shoulder before leaping out, having to run on foot through the suburban area before reaching somewhere where he could actually swing.

(())(())

Monday morning and school seemed slower than ever, but the day was going pretty well today. It was almost his lucky day you could say. His tongue healed completely, but was still purple, he made it to school on time, aced an algebra test, and even got free cheese pizza from the cafeteria. He thought his mourning friend, Harry, would tell him to get lost and push him away constantly, but he embraced Peter and Peter helped him grieve because he knew what his best friend was going through. As for Ned, he successfully set him on a date with Betty Brant, made Michelle, the stotic conspiracist, laugh at one of his jokes, got a one hundred and one percent on his project about spiders that he got done in one day, and he even got to sit with the cool kids during lunch.

And even when the day was three-fourths over, there was still one thing that Peter still wished he would see. One girl he wished wasn't absent from school today. _What happened to you?_

When school was finally over, he went over to Gwen's house to see if she was alright. He even brought soup in his backpack just in case she was sick. But when he knocked on the door and Gwen's mother answered, she told him that her father and herself have been gone all morning. Their exact location, she wasn't let on any details.

Peter paced around the neighborhood for a while, connecting his blue wireless earbuds to the Bluetooth on Karen so he could speak to her. "Karen? Can you call Gwen in one hour? Hopefully, she'll be home in like one hour."

"No problem, Peter," Karen said without any worry. "I already have her phone number in my data drives and I will set a timer for sixty minutes."

"Thanks, Karen." He knew he could rely on her. "I better get home and feed Redips. Speaking of spiders, Karen, are there any concurrent crimes happening?"

"None that I can see of."

"Any sightings of that Jackal guy?"

"None that I can see of."

"He doesn't commit crimes, he's an anti-hero necessary evil who kills criminals." He suddenly remembered what the Jackal was saying about Dr. Octopus just by talking to himself and decided to ask Karen, "Was Jackal telling the truth when he said he killed Dr. Octavius?"

Karen read off a news report found online. "According to the Daily Bugle, _Otto Octavius was found dead at the Raft in his cell with a neck snapped at a one hundred and eighty degree angle just three days after his capture by Spiderman."_

Peter grumbled. "Of course he did. Uh, did you scan for any of his weaknesses?"

"On who?"

"On Jackal."

"No weaknesses found on the Jackal."

"Nothing, seriously? Okay, well, just give me a heads up whenever the Jackal resurfaces."

"Will do."

Peter removed the earbuds and turned them off, put them away, and then jogged back home to work on his homework and make more web fluid.

He snuck into his home, narrowly avoiding his Aunt May, and locked himself in his bedroom to work on the web formula. He was listening to music on his playlist via wireless earbuds through Karen and when one hour has officially passed since he walked home from Gwen's house and made a tremendous amount of web formula, Karen updated him on two things: The Jackal's identity and Gwen's whereabouts.

Peter's eyes lit up with interest and he made sure his earbuds were secured in his ears before he spoke into them. "Karen, who is the Jackal?"

Karen answered in her usual voice, "According to a number of sources, including the Daily Bugle, Daily Globe, and New York Times, the identity of the Jackal has been leaked as former ESU biochemist, Miles Warren."

Peter nearly jumped out of his seat upon hearing the familiar name. "The sub we had like two weeks ago? He's the Jackal?"

"Not just that, but according to my calculations, there are actually two Miles Warren."

Now Peter was as confused as a baby being born for the first time and rubbed his brows. "Please explain, Karen."

"Miles Warren actually has a younger identical twin brother named Raymond Warren," Karen explained in a detailed fashion. "Like his older brother, Raymond Warren teaches biochemistry at Forest Hills High."

Peter was having a hard time trying to register what he was hearing and began playing with a pen. Two Miles Warren. "I can't believe that Miles Warren is the Jackal; I turned in my frog of the frog-shark project and I got an A+. When Miles Warren was subbing in for us, was that Miles or Raymond?"

Karen did a few calculations silently before giving a short answer response. "Most likely Raymond as a Jackal-like figure was already spotted in Brooklyn at the concurrent time. Most likely, Raymond is an accomplishment to Miles and is helping his brother."

"What about his wife? Monica, was that her name?"

"Warren's wife died at ESU and the wife you saw at the school was actually an actor."

Peter leaned back in his chair and threw his hands up in the air in frustration, the pen in his hand slipping from his fingers. "Man, there are twins and traitors left and right. Can you track the Jackal's location?"

"Negative, he is well hidden from surveillance."

"I'll keep my suit on just in case," Peter reminds himself. "But anyway, what about Gwen? Can you call her for me?"

"Already on it, Peter."

Peter leaned as far back as he could in his chair, picked up the pen to play with it between his fingers eagerly, and listened to the dial tone as he waited for Gwen to pick up. He rubbed a hand through his hair as he listened to the dial tone for what seems like forever. Once the dial tone ended and the clock started on his phone, he spoke in. "Hello?"

"Hello?" A voice replied back in Peter's voice, leaving Peter stunned for a second, thinking that maybe he was hearing an echo.

"Who is this?" He waited to see if he would hear the echo again and much to his surprise, there was the echo. "Are you playing with me, Gwen?" The echo once more. "Okay then, I guess I'll just call back later because my phone isn't working."

"I hear you loud and clear," a deep voice said on the other end before Peter could even hang up. He jumped out of the chair and eyes widened as he recognized the voice. "Yeah, you remember me, don't you?"

"Miles Warren," Peter said, exposing his identity.

"The one and only perfect mastermind behind putting a permanent end to criminals who deserve to die while maintaining a double life as a biochemist. And you, you're the stupid nerd with the big glasses."

"What do you want?" Peter threatened. "Why do you have Gwen's phone?"

"So many questions, only one answer: Spiderman." There was a silent, but an ominous pause that traveled through one end of the phone to the other. "Yeah, can you feel it? Can you feel the cold shiver running down your spine? How does it feel? How does it feel to know that someone else is in possession of your girlfriend's phone, not knowing whether your girlfriend is dead or alive? How does it feel to know that if you had done the right thing by keeping away from her, then none of this would've happened? You call yourself a hero for doing the right thing but you are a hypocrite. You've got no one but yourself to blame because people like you, they always do what is right instead of necessary and in this case, the right thing would've been to stay away from Gwen and not reveal your identity at all."

"You better not touch Gwen," Peter said with pure venom in his voice. "You touch her and I swear I will make you hurt."

"Doing what you think is necessary by threatening to beat me to a pulp? You always liked to be the hero, but you do realize as a hero, you are supposed to make the hardest decisions and the hardest decisions are always the necessary choices? I'm not a villain, I am trying to make New York a better place. I'm trying to improve you. You are a savior but you still need to spread your wings. I'm helping you. I'm helping you spread your wings. By the end of the day, you are going to thank me because I have prepared you to make the necessary choice for a perilous choice to make in the not-so-distant future."

"Wrong, you are a villain," Peter corrects. "You kidnapped my Gwen."

"Who says I kidnapped her? I didn't trick her, she got in my car and I know who you are and I know who you love. Gwen is the key to unlocking the necessity within you. She will play a big role in your life and if you make the decision correctly and I know you will make the proper decision, then I know that she will live to help you face all kinds of risks in the future but face them together."

"Where are you?"

"You really want to know, Spider? I know that you are a smarty-smarty since you go to MSST so why don't you go on your computer and trace Gwen's phone number to my location? Trust me, I will not be going anywhere, so there is no need to rush. Goodbye, Spider, and I hope that you are prepared because you are going to be making the hardest decision you will have ever made in your entire life."

And with that, the call ended.


	9. IX

It was night time by the time Peter was able to track Jackal's location to the roof of a seventeen-story building in the middle of Manhattan. Peter dresses into his Spiderman outfit, made sure that all of his weaponry was functional because he felt like this battle between Jackal was going to be a lot more different than Green Goblin and Doc Ock combined, and he swung off. As he swung from building to building, he began wondering what Jackal had in store for him. Was he going to kill him or torture him? He had no idea what his exact idea was, but he knew that he wasn't going to kill him. What the Jackal might do with Gwen, now that was starting to worry him to such an intense degree. Jackal doesn't really seem keen on hurting innocent people, but then again, he is capable of taking a life away and that alone made him dangerous and a person to be wary of. Gwen was _his_ life and he could not live without Gwen.

Karen's guiding him, making sure that he knows that he was closing in on his destination and that the building was to his right one hundred meters away. His destination was behind the crane that he was swinging towards. Spiderman swung towards the crane, shooting a single web out and swings over it twice and launches himself into the air with a backflip that had his knees tucked to his chest. He landed onto the edge of the rooftop that Karen guided him to and looked around for Jackal. There was no sign of him or Gwen, which was concerning . He leaps off the edge and onto the roof, rotating around to find his desired targets. Jackal must've been there because Jackal said that he wouldn't be leaving his current position, but he could've been lying.

"Hello?" Spiderman called out despite knowing that it was vain. "Jackal, it's me, the man you wanted to see."

"You mean the stupid nerdy kid? How's your tongue by the way? Healed up?" Jackal's voice rang out somewhere.

Spiderman looked high and low off the rooftop but there was still no Jackal nor Gwen in sight. "Karen, can you trace the sound of that voice?"

"To your north," Karen said rather quickly. "The voice appears to be coming off the side of the building."

Spiderman turns to the north side of the building and leaps with great distance to the ledge. He looks down over the side of the building to see nothing but traffic down below. He is incredibly confused because there was no possible way that he would have vanished into thin air. _Could he?_

Then his spider-sense went off and he leaped with a backflip over the threat. Jackal showed himself and he revealed that he was not actually trying to punch Spiderman, but make him alert of his presence by making it as if he was trying to attack him (and to most likely make it clear that he knows that he has a spider-sense). Jackal turns around and faces Spiderman with a pensive look. "Glad to know that you still keep your mind open."

"Alright Jackal," Spiderman began, hoping that this was some kind of friendly message about another supervillain and not an attack. "You better have good news for calling me here with Gwen's phone. I swear, if she is hurt, then I will toss you in jail myself."

"I would never hurt a person like Gwen," Jackal said sincerely, raising his hands to show sincerity. "I would never hurt someone without a very good reason at least."

"Is that your tact way of saying you do hurt people sadistically?"

"You're aiming your web-shooters at the very wrong person. I am actually very sane and I can prove it." He put his hands down to his sides.

"Really, how?" Spiderman challenged, ready to attack if he had to. "By making another supervillain who can manipulate water to drown the city in a wall of water? Using biochemistry to create a Nazi made out of bees? A walking pile of sand? How? And are you still tempted to tell me that what you are doing is necessary? Well, get this: What you are doing is evil."

"Necessary evil," Jackal corrected, voice booming as if he was proud of his statement. "I would like to think." He walked towards Spiderman with confidence, his gloved hand resting on the top of his Jackal mask, but still keeping it on to conceal his identity. "Spiderman, I am actually a good person. I am someone who does not like seeing people in pain, but I will cause people pain if I feel it's necessary."

"Miles," Spiderman called Jackal by his first name, hoping it would get through to him and unearth humanity that has been buried underneath that Jackal mask. "How the hell did you get this way?"

And just like that, Jackal ceased talking completely. Whether Miles was stunned underneath his mask or impressed, Peter couldn't tell. "What happened to you, Dr. Warren."

Jackal removed his hand from his mask and sighed loud and longingly through his mask, almost giving off the impression of anger. "Maybe something was meant to happen. Maybe a little lab accident at the ESU caused me to be this way."

"What?"

Peter had a flashback of when he was bitten by Redips at the college. A fire had started for reasons unknown at the time and it seems like now he was going to get a clear picture as to what really went down.

"Miles Warren was trying to create a medicine to rid humans of incurable diseases. It would increase not only their metabolism but their physical bodily structure. A human being with all prior attributes like running, fighting, speed, all enhanced to such a massive degree. A fully amplified human being. The experiment goes a little haywire and chemical fumes cause nitrogen to combust and spark a tiny but lethal fire. Miles Warren inhaled the chemical fumes by accident and died shortly thereafter."

Peter could literally not believe what he was hearing and if felt like his heart stopped drumming in his chest. "What?" _Miles Warren, dead?_ "You have to explain who you are then."

"The only man left in the room," Jackal began explaining. "I was interested in seeing what Miles Warren had about curing the incurable so I went down to the lab to get a first-hand look. Not only did Miles Warren inhale the flames, but so did I. I am still trying to understand why I survived, but the serum worked. All my regular human characteristics traits enhanced. Healing, sensing, eyesight, I can almost border precognition just like you."

And just like that, it was like Peter was looking at himself in the mirror. "You had these powers for the greater good, why didn't you use them for the greater good? Who are you and where's Gwen?"

"Ah, Peter," Jackal said in his deep voice. "You really think…." he switched to his normal voice. "Do you really think that I would hurt my own…"

Spiderman's eyes widened as he realized whose voice had a direct match to the voice he was hearing. The Jackal grabbed his mask and slowly, he removed it from his head to reveal the blank face of George Stacy. "...Daughter."

"Captain," Peter whispered astonished. He stepped back in shock and horror. "It was you the whole time? How did you know it was me as Spiderman?"

Jackal already had an answer and he was hoping that he would ask. "Simple. When I was on the Statue of Liberty with you, your left hazel eye was exposed and my amplified photographic memory made me realize that Peter Parker has the same hazel eye. That was how I was able to deduce that Spiderman and Peter Parker were one and the same."

"Captain!" Peter yanked off his mask, sensing that it was no longer useful for him to be wearing his mask. "Where is Gwen? I know she's your daughter, so that means you wouldn't hurt her."

Jackal grinned at Spiderman slyly like a fox. "You are true, but…" He backed towards the edge and reached down to grab something with one hand. A person with a bag over their head and their hands and legs tied together via cords from a powered lamp or something. How Peter didn't notice the hostage before, that was beyond him. Most likely, Jackal could've stored the hostage underneath the ledge directly, most likely hooking them to some kind of rebar by the shirt. He threw the hostage to the ground two feet in front of him but was kept a good twenty feet away from Peter. The hostage was curled up in a fetal position

"You snatched a hostage?" Peter raised his wrist and shot a web out for the hood. Jackal caught the web in mid-air with something amazing speed, he yanked the webbing from the web-shooter and tore it in half. "What the hell?"

Jackal crouched down and yanked the hood from the hostage's face, revealing a gagged Gwen underneath. "GWEN!" He dived for her, but his spider-sense stopped him in his tracks. Jackal already rolled the torn webbing up to make a sphere web and hurled it at Peter's chest. He was able to backflip, but not before the webbing hit him in the leg and trapped his foot to the ground. He shot more webs at Jackal, only for him to catch all of them and remove them from the web-shooters.

While Peter tried freeing his foot from his own webbing after not realizing how strong his webbing actually was, Jackal went on to explain what he was doing. "Remember our little dinner conversation from last night? I was telling you how that there comes a time where you must do what is necessary instead of what is right? Well, today, I am going to help prepare you for that."

"What kind of sick game is this?" Peter was close to freeing his foot entirely, he just had to keep the police captain talking. "How is this going to work if you tie up your daughter?" He shoots a web bullet at Jackal, who jerked his head to the left and the web went flying into space.

"I love my daughter, and that is why I know you will do the right thing right now or at least try to do it. Are you ready? We are going to play a game. The game is, you must kill one of us to save the other." Jackal unzipped his black jacket to show a small silver circular device embedded within his bare chest. "This little device that I implanted in my chest is a heart monitor." He then lifts Gwen to her knees, removes the gag from her mouth gently and forced her to open her mouth, to reveal a silver bullet shaped device at the back of her wisdom teeth. "This little device that I've implanted in my daughter's mouth is connected to my heart monitor. You see, for every beat, my heart gives off from adrenaline, it charges up the bullet to denote. Not a TNT explosive weaponry like that, but a cyanide substance that will kill her in a matter of minutes."

Peter's world stopped spinning, his heart dropped, he felt weak as a bag of weathers. He didn't even try to free his foot from his web. "No….you poisoned your own daughter….why?"

"Because I am trying to show you that when you face a decision where the bad choice is unavoidable, then you must choose the lesser of the two evils. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I am trying to make New York City safe again by making sure that you know that all life is precious, but you must make the hardest decision there is and that it is inevitable. Consider this your training."

"You are going to go to jail for attempted murder," Peter vows as he rips his foot free. "I will make sure of it."

"Listen to me, you stupid nerdy kid without glasses."

"Peter, don't do what he wants!" Gwen calls out, mumbling through the bullet in her mouth. "Don't do what he wants!"

"I know you love my daughter, but there is no third option. You either kill me or kill my daughter." Jackal's voice had a hint of regret in him, showing to some degree, he was unsure about the odds, but he quickly removed any regret within him. "I am willing to gamble with my daughter's life, knowing that my daughter's boyfriend will do whatever he has to do to protect her."

"What is your sick and deluded game, Mr. Stacy?" Peter challenged. "What could you possibly have in store for me?"

"Simple," Jackal said matter-of-factly. "All you have to do is kill me before my heart charges the bullet in her mouth. You knock me out or leave my adrenaline pumping for too long, then Gwen dies and you wouldn't have killed her. However, if you kill me, through any necessary means, then the bullet in her mouth will deactivate and her life will be spared. As I said, there is no third option here."

"I don't want to kill anyone," Peter said fearfully but put on his Spiderman mask. "There must be something we can do. You must love your daughter, please don't do this."

"I do love my daughter and I trust you to make the necessary decision here. There will come a point in your life Spiderman where there is no right decision. There is only the lesser of two evils; bad or worse. Would you rather save your aunt and let the eight million people of New York die, or would you do the opposite? You choose Aunt May, you are saving only one woman, one sister, one aunt. You save the eight million, and you are saving not only aunts, women, and sisters, but mothers, fathers, son, daughters, uncle, husbands, grandfathers, a lot of them. The right thing would be to save your family, and the only necessary thing to do would be not to save your Aunt May. This is just like this, Peter. Think of me as one soul, and Gwen is New York itself. I represent the one son, father, uncle, and she represents the millions of aunts, mothers, and sisters. There is a right in this decision but the right thing is the necessary thing. Fight for Gwen and New York itself."

Jackal studied Spiderman hard with a glare, exhaling deeply with one hand reaching to his animal mask to put it back on his face while the other hand zips up his jacket. "But, you have to fight to make a decision like this, so I won't be taking it easy on you." He lunges for Spiderman without any warning or hesitation. Peter yanked his mask back on and shot a web grenade at Jackal. The gooey webbing stops Jackal from running, but he ripped free from the webbing and threw a punch at Spiderman, nearly clipping him in the jaw if he hadn't jerked his head back.

"Gotta get my adrenaline pumping," Jackal said simply. He swings a few more unsuccessfully hits at Spiderman's face. Spiderman reeled one of his fits back and threw it forward, aiming for Jackal's side. He felt his knuckles crunch on impact and a terrible sensation of pain shoot through his arm. He nursed his broken fingers and barely had a chance to duck. But after he ducked, Jackal kneed him in the face, bringing Spiderman up to a stiffened position and punched him hard across the jaw.

Spiderman now remembered what his own blood tasted like. Jackal uppercuts Spiderman off the ground and he almost falls over the edge of the building. Spiderman lies on his back, continuing to clutch his broken fingers of his right hand painfully and with his unbroken left hand, he shoots a taser web at Jackal as he ran for him. The villain did stop in his tracks but in confusion rather than anguish. He just looked at the taser webbing on his chest and tore it off his jacket, the pain practically nonexistent.

Spiderman shot all kinds of web combat variants at Jackal, but all he did was either shrug it off, dodge it, or rip it all while continuing to attack Spiderman on the ground. Jackal dived for Spiderman on the ground, pushing him back with his head hanging over the edge, and sits on his stomach while using his feet to keep Spiderman's hands at bay and using his hands to knock some sense into Spiderman.

Gwen couldn't bear seeing her father beat her boyfriend relentlessly. She could also not believe the position he put her in. She understands that his heart was in the right place, but his methods were completely antagonistic and absurd. She could not imagine the anguish that Peter would feel if he failed to save her, which would hurt more than killing somebody directly. She was not going to allow her boyfriend to do that for her. She also loved her father, but Spiderman was a much more important figure in this city who really could make a difference. Her father already created two powerful villains and killed one of them. She refused to shed any tears because she knew that if it meant saving Peter and this city from the Jackal, then she would kill the Jackal for Peter so he would not have to go through the pain of killing someone. That kind of trauma of killing someone could lead him to a deep depression. She was willing to bear that depression for him.

_That's not my father,_ Gwen thought seriously, trying to justify her actions to herself. _My father died at ESU in the fire._

Jackal punched Spiderman across the face a few times that his mask was actually starting to tear and expose his mouth and right eye. With his arms pinned and Jackal sitting on his chest, Spiderman kicked Jackal in the back of the skull. Apparently, he was not expecting it and he almost went falling over the edge and down an alleyway. He thrusts his hands on the edge and stops just in time. He sits back up on Spiderman, abruptly lifting his mask and vomited blood on Spiderman's chest. After that, he was pushed all the way off of Spiderman and to the side. Spiderman jumps to his feet, groans in disgust at the bloody vomit on his chest, and kicks Jackal in the stomach. The villain shows no pain and hammers his fist into the young hero's knee. Spiderman felt his leg go numb and he backed away from Jackal.

Gwen tried spitting the bullet out of her mouth, but it was drilled in real good. When Jackal first drilled the bullet in her wisdom teeth, it didn't hurt at all and was honestly the most painless dentist experience she has ever had. Instead of focusing on how much time she had before the cyanide would kill her, she focused on the time she still had to free her wrists from the cords. She used the sweat from her hands to rub on her wrists to make her hands slide through like butter. There was a reason her father chose power cords over duct tape because they were extremely difficult to break through.

Spiderman resets his Kneebone back into place painfully with a loud pop of the bone and tells Karen to activate instant-kill mode on the lowest difficult possible. Once it was set, he went after the Jackal.

Even with powerful punches that the instant-kill mode offered, they still had almost little to no effect on Jackal. It was almost like his original high pain tolerance was jacked up to eleven and was practically unable to feel any pain. Jackal caught Spiderman's hand with the broken fingers and wrapped his free hand around the web shooter on that wrist and crushed it, spewing small volumes of webbing around his own fingers. Spiderman groaned in frustration and pain and struck Jackal in the temple with his other hand. The animal caught Spiderman's fist but reacted too late when Spiderman kicked him in the stomach and sent him back a few feet and staggered towards the side.

With his back turned to Spiderman, the young hero shot another web grenade at Jackal's back. He sensed it but wasn't able to do anything in time because the device embedded itself on the back of his jacket and trapped him in gooey webbing. He tore through the first layer of webbing, until Spiderman shot seven more web grenades, practically trapping him like a mosquito in tree sap.

Jackal was _now _having an extremely difficult time getting out of the webbing. As he tried freeing himself, Gwen yanked her hands through the cords, freeing her arms before she went to free her legs. She scatters to her feet and looks over to the edge that she was just hanging from before Spiderman got there. She was literally dangling from rebar. She found the loose hook-shaped bladed rebar and tore it from the building. She now had rebar about two feet long in her hand and she was going to use it to stab her father.

Gwen sneaks up on her father and stabs the rebar deep into his back. Unfortunately, it did not pierce as far as intended as only one-fourth of the rebar was buried in his back. Jackal actually felt the pain and backhanded Gwen across the face with as little force as possible. Gwen fell to the ground with a grunt and gazed at her father with shock. He just hit his own daughter, but he didn't seem to care because he was reaching for the rebar to either plant it deeper into his back or to yank it out and use it as a weapon against Spiderman.

The latter most likely because Jackal kicked Spiderman across the jaw when he had the chance. Spiderman punched Jackal back across the face as hard as he could and threw him to the side. Spiderman moved towards Gwen and crouched down to meet her level. "Are you all right? Did he hurt you?"

"No," Gwen answered, still in a state of shock. She nearly gasped upon seeing Peter's bloody mask and face and she touched her own face to make sure that she wasn't bleeding. "I just can't believe he slapped me across the face."

"You tried to kill him," Spiderman realized, almost choking upon the revelation. "Why?"

"I don't want you to go through the pain of killing somebody. He is not my father, and I am not going to allow my superhero boyfriend to kill someone. I will take the fall."

Spiderman looked at Gwen and then to Jackal, who was laying flat on his stomach, motionless. He struggled to say what he was saying because he was still conflicted about his decisions. "You have no idea what it's like to take a life," he said as he looked back at her. "I have no idea what to do, Gwen," he cried. "I don't want to kill anybody, but I don't want you to die." He sobbed through his mask and into his unbroken arm. "I have no idea what to do."

"You can't save me without giving a piece of yourself," Gwen said. "I will kill Da- Jackal and I won't feel guilty. There only right thing here is to save a life and the only necessary course of action is to take a life away to save that life, only the bad or worse. Let me make the bad decision and spare my life instead of you making the decision that could leave you with PTSD."

Jackal's left eye shot open and he heard everything that his daughter said. His daughter was really going to kill him and try to cheat Spiderman out of making a choice that was made specifically for him? He understood what his daughter was saying, but he felt cheated himself completely. He felt like his daughter spat on him and was stepping on his toes. He still loved his daughter, but this kind of betrayal is something he never expected. This time, he really was indeed going to up the odds. He was going to put Spiderman in a situation where it was either him or Gwen and it was going to be a timely decision. Certainly after damaging his one web shooter was definitely something that was going to play a big role in what he was going to do next.

Jackal blocks all the pain in his body, kips up, and charges at Spiderman. He knew that he would trigger his spider-sense, which only motivated him to work faster.

Spiderman turned his head to the right, saw a fist coming for his head, and tried to jerk his head out the way, but he was unable to dodge the punch in time and the fist collided hard with his jaw, rendering him numb and falling over to the side and almost over the edge. Jackal grabs Gwen by the throat and hauls her to her feet. He wraps his hands tightly around her throat and begins squeezing, causing veins to protrude in her head and face turn blood red. The small ounce of humanity within him prevented him from killing his daughter but instead wrap his elbow around her throat, but in a gentle way to make sure that she would still be able to breathe.

Spiderman groans and leaps back to his feet and with his back turned to them, eyes widen as his spider-sense warned him of a danger that he has yet to encounter until now. Out of fear, he turns around slowly to see Jackal choking his own daughter. "Jackal, what are you doing?"

"I have your woman here," Jackal states sarcastically as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Either you save me or save Gwen."

At this point, Peter has just about had it with Jackal and his behavior. "That cuts it animal-boy. Up to now, I've been really friendly and all- considering your problems and all- but when you wrap your hands around my girl's throat, the gloves are off." Peter now knew what he was going to do. He was going to kill the Jackal and save Gwen. At this point, anything would be better than Gwen dying right in front of him. "Karen, reset instant-kill mode to the highest level possible."

"I thought you'd never ask," Karen says snidely.

"Not that web-slinger," Jackal groans, vomiting more blood on the inside of his mask, the sound of him throwing up making both Peter and Gwen gag. "Say goodbye to one of us, because…" He looks over the edge behind him and smiles at how high they were. "One of us is going to die and I hope that it's me."

"Peter?" Gwen says with wide eyes as her father does the most unexpected thing by leaning back and allowing himself to fall over the building.

"NO!" Peter shouts hysterically. He dives forward and over the edge. As if everything happened in slow-motion, Peter stared into Gwen's terrified eyes as she fell with her father down seventeen stories. Peter did what he did best: He shot a web out, aiming for Gwen's chest, all while he gazes into her eyes as she falls, the only thing on his mind, is that he has to save Gwen because he could not live without Gwen. The web grabs Gwen's stomach, but that was not a victory itself. They were still falling and he had to do something to stop them from falling, something to grab onto.

A smile was brought to Peter's face as he heard a helicopter flying above him. With two fingers, he disconnects the web from his web-shooter, puts it in his left hand, rotates his body to a ninety-degree angle, all while still looking at Gwen, and blindly fired a web from his right hand. The web sticks to the helicopter above him as it stops flying forward. He holds onto both webs tight as he stops falling just as he was almost halfway down the building.

Heartbreakingly, Peter did not hear the dreadful _SNAP!_


	10. X

As if in slow motion as well, Jackal fell to the ground, no longer clinging onto his own daughter as he fell. He felt weightless and his heart felt like it was going to burst into his chest. That feeling came true when he smacked into the ground with an amazing speed that blood burst out of his mouth, nose, and eyes that splattered on the inside of his mask and dripped down his face like tears. The pain within him was all too unbearable for him now. Upon landing on his back on the concrete, the rebar in his back was pushed deeper into his body and stabbed through his heart, his organ sticking on the end of the stick that tore through his jacket. This time, there was no healing that could save him. Using what strength he still had that was keeping him from dying instantly, he touched his blood pumping organ one last time before he finally gave away, his body left in nothing more than a puddle of his own blood.

Spiderman slowly lowers himself down from the moving helicopter and down to the ground of the alley. Once he knows that she is safe on the ground, he lets go of the helicopter and falls several stories, landing on his feet. The helicopter seems to have picked something up below them because they were not leaving.

Gwen was lying motionless on the ground under a yellow light coming from above a side door. Peter knows that they were in an abandoned alley and that there was nobody in sight and that the Jackal was dead, so he knew it was safe to take off his mask and check on the motionless Gwen.

He kneels down to one knee and cradles her in his arms. "Gwen," his voice shakes slightly as he puts a hand on her cheek. "It's alright, I saved you. I saved you…" His eyes widened as he felt no pulse from her veins when his hand brushed against her neck. "Hey, Gwen? Are you awake?" Now the fear was starting to build up within him as he repeated the question. Tears were threatening to stream down his cheeks and there was a lump growing in his throat. He shook several more times, desperate to get her to wake up. "What's wrong?" his voice cracked with sadness, face turning red. "Don't you understand? I save you...you can't be-"

A tear of blood streams from her nose and down her cheek.

Peter started breaking down in his tears, face blushing, breathing in a shaky way, sobbing uncontrollably as he continued to cradle Gwen's body in his arms. "No please, please don't die."

This is the future prediction that he saw at the university when he got bitten.

_Peter spent the last ten minutes asleep, having vivid dreams of his mother and father the last day they saw him. One of the dreams or flashes he saw made him move a little in his sleep. He didn't get a clear picture, but he saw that his chest and face were bleeding, there was a helicopter above him, and he was holding his life in his arms._

Gwen was the life that he was holding in his hands. _His_ life.

* * *

Only a single day has passed since the tragedy of Gwen Stacy and Peter has not been the same in the last twelve hours. There was a funeral held for her in Green-Wood Cemetery with her father. She was to be buried with the gravestone above her that read, 'Gwendolyn Stacy. Beloved Daughter, Sister, Friend. 2002-2018.' Her father's grave was only several feet away from her and it read, 'George Stacy. Beloved Friend, Husband, Brother, Uncle, Father. 1971-2018.'

Peter was mourning and he made no attempt to hold back the tears welling up inside of him. The suit he was dressed in, was the same suit that he wore for her to Homecoming and his first date with her. He wore his Homecoming suit for Gwen to dance with her, go on a date with her, and he was now wearing that same suit to grieve for her. Gwen's own mother, brother, and sister were all there to pay their respects, Gwen's mother leaning on Peter's shoulder to cry in. Harry was there along with Ned, Betty, Max, Quentin, Besty, Mr. Harrington, Aunt May, and even Michelle.

Peter didn't hear anything that the minister said as they lowered the coffin into Gwen's dug up grave. Only when he said that it was time to pay their last respects to Gwen, Peter went first because he felt the most guilt and remorse than anybody at the cemetery. Because of him, his girlfriend, his life, died, because of his own actions. Had he killed Jackal on the roof, then he definitely would've saved Gwen's life, but he would be taking away a husband and father away from Gwen's family. He was too hesitant with his decision, which leads to everything happening after. He shot a web at Gwen to catch her and the recoil snapped her neck, killing her instantly. Gwen even offered to kill her own father to save Peter from the pain of directly killing somebody.

There was no way to avoid making a bad choice, only the lesser of the two evils. He could've made the bad decision, but he made the worst decision and that cost him the lives of two people he so desperately tried to save. This was going to affect him for the rest of his life.

_Maybe, I'm just not meant to be Spiderman,_ Peter cried sadly. _Maybe, I can't save people. I let Uncle Ben die, I couldn't save his killer, and I let Jackal die but I still could not save Gwen._

This was not the life that was meant for him and it pained him to realize it too late. All the responsibilities that he would be giving up for a better life, it may make him feel guilty, but it was the right thing for him to do. There was no necessary decision this time. Only right and wrong and it would be wrong for him to be Spiderman.

Even though he was virtually dead from grieving, Peter heard several people speaking about the fate of the Jackal, Green Goblin, and Dr. Octopus. All that anybody was really saying was that all three either murdered each other or committed suicide. As for their identities, the press had been very vigilant in covering up Norman Osborn's identity as the Green Goblin. So the Daily Bugle publishes a story about someone else being the Green Goblin.

As far the public was concerned, Barton Hamilton was the Green Goblin and his death was suicidal.

Otto Octavius was not called a mad scientist but was ruled out as a brainwashed man with no control over his actions, but was still labeled as a murder victim at the hands of the Jackal.

The real mastermind behind everything, the Jackal, - or George Stacy - his identity was so far the only ones who haven't changed. The public has always believed that Miles Warren was the Jackal and that the body of George Stacy in the Jackal's outfit was a ruse to throw people off. Both Miles Warren and Raymond Warren were both called 'The Jackals of New York City' and they were posthumously branded as terrorists and they were labeled as twins who murdered each other. George Stacy was branded as the hero by the police force who was murdered by the Jackal.

Harry Osborn, still grieving over his father's death, became the new CEO of Oscorp Industries, even though he was only at the age of fifteen. It was a big responsibility, but he accepted it for the sake of his father. He was going to make sure that nobody like 'Barton Hamilition' would use Oscopr technology against the city. He was going to make Oscorp a better company.

Ned Leeds, he was thinking of becoming a reporter for the Daily Bugle. It was Betty's suggestion that made him apply to the Daily Bugle.

Peter was the very first person to walk up to the coffin and place his hand on the wood, bowing his head down, paying his respects tearfully. He still just couldn't understand why it had to be this way. When he accepted his life, he didn't sign up for his family or friends to get caught in the cross-fire. _I guess I did, but I should've been quicker and less hesitant._

With regret, Peter removed his hand from the wooden box and took his seat beside Aunt May, crying with trembling breaths. He took one last glance of Gwen before she was finally lowered into the ground, dirt placed on top of her, signifying that she will now rest in peace. Peter had to be pulled gently away from the grave so he could get in his aunt's car and drive home after the funeral was done. Peter didn't really say much on the whole car ride home. He just sat in the passenger seat and stared out the window as his Aunt May drove them home.

On multiple occasions, she has attempted to get Peter to talk, but he was too catatonic to say anything, so he just ignored his Aunt May's attempts of a conversation. She knew exactly what he was going through because she went through the exact same thing with Ben. She respected that he didn't want and let him grieve his own way and it was like that the whole car ride home. Even when they got home, Peter still said nothing and just retreated to his room, falling flat on the side of his bed, crying into his pillow.

"Why did you have to die?" he sobs painfully into the pillow wet with his tears.

As Peter laid there, overcome with sadness, he began reflecting on his choice that he made earlier to himself at the cemetery. He had decided that he was Spiderman no more. He was feeling guilty over his decision, but not as guilty as he was when he killed Gwen practically. But even with his face buried in his pillow, he began reflecting on what major changes could affect not only his life but the life of the people around him by giving up his life as Spiderman.

For one, he wouldn't have to worry about not being able to save anybody because the real heroes would be there and he was not a real hero. The proper authorities, police, firemen, the military if possible. Sure, they might not always be there in time, but he wouldn't have to worry about making the worst mistakes or any bad mistakes out of the lesser evil choices. A pro and a con in that one.

Second, he could live a normal life. He can hang out with his friends and family, he can make appointments without the fear of his alter-ego day interfering. He could always be on time in school, study for tests, and never be late for a day at work. But then again, he basically takes pictures for the Daily Bugle of Spiderman, so without Spiderman around, there is pretty much no use for J. Jonah Jameson to have him around. So he would pretty much lose his job at the Daily Bugle, but never again would he complicate his schedule without a double life. Another pro and con there.

Third, this was probably the most important one: Someone could die because of him. When he got his powers, they went off when Uncle Ben's killer ran past him. He should've trusted his new powers to detain the criminal, but he didn't. No, he _ignored _them and it cost him a life. He would still have his powers with him after today and if he did sense something like that, he would take the criminal out in the most humane way possible. That was the only pro there: He would use his abilities in the most human way possible and use them only if he needed to use them.

Ultimately, there were three pros and only two cons, so he knew what his decision was: He was going to throw away his Spiderman suit with Karen and Redips with it.

He was really going to miss having Karen around; she was a good voice to talk to and Redips, he was a remarkably intelligent pet. Even though he was going to throw his suit away, he could not bring himself to killing Redips or Karen, so he would have to do something else with them.

_I could upload Karen to my phone and keep Redips as my pet,_ he suggested to himself. _Karen and Redips and both still be in my life._

Peter was suddenly having a headache and he reached over to his table lamp to turn off the lights and go to bed, not bothering to change into pajamas.

The next morning came and Peter stayed home from school, Aunt May even calling him in to excuse him absent for a personal matter. To him, this really was a personal matter and he was going to spend the rest of the day doing whatever he could to feel better. But most of the time, he spent reflecting on his decision to either keep or give up being Spiderman. He was still listing the pros and cons, but they would always be at each other equally. If there was something good about giving up as Spiderman, there was something bad. If there was something bad about staying Spiderman, there was always a good outcome. It was like a tug-of-war; he has never thought of something this big before in his entire life.

_What would Uncle Ben think? What would Gwen think? If Aunt May knew, then what would she think?_

He already knew what Jackal would think: Not to waste all the potential and do what is necessary. Well, because of him, if he had just let Spiderman do things his way, then none of this would've happened. Then again, if he hadn't revealed his secret identity to Gwen, maybe a different outcome would have befallen him. _Or, if I had stayed away from Gwen completely, then Jackal never would've figured out any connection between me and Gwen. But what would've happened if Redips did not bite me? Would Jackal still turn out to be the man that he is?_

That was another question that had been nagging Peter. If he wasn't bitten, would Jackal become a vigilante himself, or would things still turn out the way they were with someone else in Spiderman's place? That was a question he was always going to wonder because Redips changed his life forever.

_If I had known that this would all happen, then I would've never revealed my identity to Gwen._

If he knew that Jackal was going to force him into a situation where he would kill someone directly or indirectly, then would he have made an even quicker timely decision? Another question that will keep him wondering forever, but one thing was indeed clear: After today, he was going to make more timely decisions in his life. Regardless of whether he is going to keep his secret life or retire from it, he was never ever going to be hesitant when it comes to a decision between one or two.

Just thinking of the fact that he was going to change his life made him even sadder that Gwen was not going to help him in his life. _It's my fault anyway. I killed her. I got her kidnapped, and I snapped her neck. It was all on me._

Even Gwen would say something different if she were talking to him in ghost presence, but he would still argue to her that it was his fault. Gwen has always been there for him to help him through the toughest times, but with her gone, he could sure some of that guidance of her. Wisdom, the one thing that he practically fell in love with Gwen for.

Uncle Ben, another person known for their wisdom. The one person that he wished he could help him. But since he grew up with his Uncle Ben, he pretty much already knew what he would've said: Look into your heart to see what is right. I am nothing but a phone trying to get a message across and your heart is the receiver.

_My heart is the one who tells me a message. Uncle Ben is just trying to get the message across like a phone, and my heart is the one who decides to accept the call or end the call._ Peter laid flat on his back and began thinking about this quote. Everything that represented this quote meant that at the end of the day, the person who gets the message across to people needing saving is Spiderman, but it is up to the people they saved if they wish to cherish their lives or turn to a life of crime.

Gwen would definitely tell him not to give up. Pretty much, everybody would tell him not to give up on his life as Spiderman. But he wasn't giving up, he was conflicted about not wanting to be Spiderman anymore. Even if the city no longer needed Spiderman, then Peter would retire long before that.

Hell, even before his Aunt May called him in absent, he spoke to Karen on what he should decide. She just said the same thing: It was his choice and he would be supported either way. Honestly, he was never expecting these many people to count on him and they didn't even talk to him first.

It was ten o'clock, but it took him over two hours for him to finally come up with a choice.

_I am going to give up my life as Spiderman. It may not be the best choice morally, but it's the right thing._

One of the things that actually brought a smile to his face was that there would be no supervillains for him to face because simply, without a superhero to stop you, then the crime rate will go up and there is no need to augment yourself because your only challenge is the police. But then again, a con in that situation was that the crime rate will go up.

Peter knew what he was getting himself in to. He knew that by eight o'clock tonight, he was going to get rid of his Spiderman uniform once and for all. The alley beside the restaurant that he escorted Gwen to climb the fire escape, there was a garbage can. He figured that if he was going to give away something that offered a lot of destruction to the people around him, he at least wanted it to go out with a romantic gesture of some kind and what is more romantic then leaving your uniform in a place where you shared your first kiss?

Peter sat up in bed and ran a hand nervously through his hair. He had been thinking of the proper time to give his costume away. They kissed on a Sunday at nighttime so Peter decided to throw his costume away on the same night at the same time. He reminded himself to be ready because Sunday was still a week away.

* * *

He packed his suit, put it in his backpack, got on his bike, and rode to the back alley of the restaurant. It was nine o'clock on Sunday night and it was raining. He did not predict it was raining, but it seemed practical like it was destiny for him to be giving up his life in rainy conditions. He put his hood on, parked his bike near the brick wall and looked into the darkness, lightning striking above him, giving him illumination of the alley.

There was the same trash can that Peter spotted when he told Gwen to climb up the fire escape on the restaurant's neighboring building. His heart melted in his chest with a sigh as he pulled off his backpack, took out his costume, making sure that nobody would see from behind - but it was a school night so most people were home anyway - and moved towards the trash can.

Clutching the costume in his arms, he stands at the trash can, takes the cover off and throws it into a pile of trash bags. His grip on the costume suddenly tightens and his mouth drops as he gazes down on his costume. As if on cue, a flash of lightning lights up the area followed by thunder.

"I can't believe I am really doing this," he said to himself in disbelief. "Goodbye Spiderman." As slow as a snail, he gently puts the costume down on the trash can, unable to look away without crying and his tears were mixed in the rain. He wanted to put the lid of the trash can back on, but decided against it at the last second, and slowly turns his body to start walking down the alley.

As he walked away, his shoes soaking in rainwater, a sudden memory stops him from walking any further and freezes him in his tracks.

Gwen's voice saying: _Whenever I look at Spiderman, I feel safe. I mean, I have never seen him myself, but whenever I see him on TV, I feel like there is hope for New York City. The crime wave has been high for the last several months, but Spiderman cleaned the city up._

Then he heard Uncle Ben's voice: _When your father, my brother, went to his Homecoming for the first time, he met the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He changed in a couple of ways. He let his job get in the way of spending time with his family, his friends, he never wanted a child. You are just like him in every way, Pete. I just wanted to let you know that if you meet a girl you want to spend the rest of your life within that dance, you have to be very careful who you change into. Your father was a man who had great power but was irresponsible. With great power comes great responsibility._

He heard his own voice: _I'm not looking for fame, I'm trying to protect the people of this city._

Then came back a memory from his past. A memory from this same restaurant ironically, where one little line from Gwen made him reveal his identity to her and sparked the chain of events that happened next.

_When this big kid knocked my books down, you reached down to help me back up. Then you had to suffer verbal abuse from that bully, but you continued to help me. Spiderman must deal with criminals on a daily basis, but he still helps people._

There was something else that Gwen said that he had been waiting for a long time.

_I do indeed have a question for Peter Parker_

_Really, what would that be?_

_Do you love me?_

_Yes._

_I love you, too._

This single memory made Peter smile in happiness for the first time since Gwen's death. She didn't love Spiderman, she loved Peter Parker. When he was fighting the Jackal, Gwen wasn't fighting for Spiderman, she was fighting for Gwen. He began laughing a little and leans against the wall, looking up towards the sky, rainwater dripping into his eyes.

Peter already knew what Gwen would say.

_Peter, I love you for who you are. Mask on or mask off, you are always going to be my Peter Parker. You still give me hope and you make people feel safe. People are always going to look up to you. You save one person, you save hundreds of people. I may have died, but you saved me in your own way. No matter what anybody says, or how bad the situation gets, or whatever happens between us one way or another, you are always going to be my hero. I love you, Peter._

Peter squeezed his eyes shut and sobbed, a tear falling down his cheek as he tilted his head down. "I love you too, Gwen."

He now knew what he had to do. This was his final choice. "With great power, comes great responsibility. You save one person, you save hundreds of people."

He walks to back to the trash can, looking down at his costume and grabs his mask, looking straight into the lenses. "I won't stop being Spiderman. I will make you and Uncle Ben proud, Gwen. I won't let another Gwen or Uncle Ben die out there."

Wiping the mask clean, he puts the mask over his face and grabs the rest of his costume. He dresses into his attire and webs his bike and backpack to the wall after putting his regular clothes away. He turns on his web-shooters and looks up the fire escape. He climbs up the wall and onto the building where he shared his first kiss with Gwen.

"This is who I am now," Peter says to himself. He walks over to the ledge, jumps on and looks out to the city. "I have a responsibility and an obligation to both of you." He shoots a web out to a building and swings across. He swings high in the air and backflips as he falls. He shoots a web out and swings between two eighteen-wheelers. "Peter Parker is who I am on the surface. I'm not Peter Parker anymore."

He fires two webs at two buildings on opposite ends and catapults himself forward. He somersaults off the edge of a tall building and jumps high into the rainy atmosphere. He nosedives towards the ground, the very last second swinging from the ground and high up back into the air, landing and clinging onto a wet and slippery flag pole with the wet flag swerving like a wave.

"I'm Spiderman."

After Spiderman had decided to keep his role as Spiderman, he returned home and snuck in through his window. The light in his room was turned off and the door closed. He paced to the center of his bedroom, turned around to face the window and pulled off his wet mask, a slight smirk across his face.

Despite having precognition, he did not sense Aunt May opening his door and see him pull off his Spiderman mask with his back turned to her.

The only thing that caused Peter's smirk to transform into an expression of shock at the drop of a hat was when he heard his Aunt May shout, "What the fu-"

* * *

_Secret Ending_

_Five Months Later_

_It was March 2019 and it was Peter's sixth month since he became Spiderman back in September. He was taking a train full of people to school and he quickly texted his aunt on the train telling him that after school he would be patrolling. His Aunt May was fully aware of his double life as Spiderman but after proving to her that he can take care of himself she allowed him to continue being Spiderman so he can carry out charitable acts._

_Peter walked from the subway all the way to school and when he crossed the street, he was almost run over by Flash Thompson in his 2018 Honda Accord. "What's up, Penis Parker!" he called out as he drove away. Peter rolled his eyes and walked into Midtown School of Science and Technology (or Midtown High for short). Betty Brant and her co-anchor (whatever his name was) were both on the news doing a report on showing their spirit for Spiderman by wearing red, blue, and black._

_He loaded his jacket and miscellaneous items in his locker before he felt a slight poke on his right shoulder and a familiar voice. "Join me and together, we'll build my new Lego Death Star."_

_Peter recognized that voice and the product that the voice was talking about. He rotates to see Ned holding a miniature Lego figure in his hand and gasps, "What?" Ned nodded with a smile on his face. They both turned their heads in the direction of someone calling them lame but they both just ignored them. Peter turned back to Ned and asked, "No way, that's awesome. How many pieces?" 3,803. "That's insane."_

_"I know," Ned nodded. "You want to build it tonight?"_

_Peter shut his locker and marched forward with Ned walking beside him. "I can't, I have…" he was spacing on an excuse before, "Job interviews." He was fine with working with Jameson at the Daily Bugle, however._

_"I thought Mr. Jameson was paying you a fair wage."_

_Peter remembers his usual paycheck and smiles awkwardly at Ned. "Yeah, it is a fair wage, if it was 1962."_

_Ned recounted his own paycheck and realized that maybe it was time for two jobs. "I guess you have a point there. I'm a reporter for the Daily Bugle and he pays me minimum wage. I can barely pay off my electric bill at my house. I constantly need Max to replace the power box. I always thought that the harder you work, the more money you get paid; I don't know how jobs work anymore."_

_"Jobs still work that way," Peter reminded._

_Ned shrugged and wiped away a strand of hair from his forehead. "Anyway, I'll knock out the basic parts of the Death Star at my place then I can come by your house and we can finish the remaining three-fourths of the set. You game?" He looked at Peter, who was staring off down the hall. Ned followed his gaze to see Betty - his girlfriend - walking with another girl down at the end of the hall._

_In Peter's mind, at this very moment, he had never seen the beauty in Michelle "MJ" Jones' face. The young girl was the same age as Peter and she had the waviest hair he had ever seen. Usually, one strand of that hair was covering her right eye but she still managed to catch a side glimpse of Peter staring at her at the end of the hall. She took it as a compliment before walking forward and out of sight. He, of course, remembered Gwen, but after a very long time, after a lot of dates he turned down to honor Gwen, he eventually learned to let go. It took him three months but he learned to let go and move on. Now, he had his eyes set on the girl he had been friends with for months. He smiled shyly at MJ before she walked out of sight and felt a familiar feeling of warmth within his heart._

_He did not hear what Ned said at all and with a blank mind, nonchalantly said, "That'd be great."_

* * *

**And that is Spiderman: Homecoming. Thank you all so much for reading my story and thank you for the reviews. I had a lot of fun writing this story and I'm glad that I published it. If you liked it, then favorite it and review; I want to hear your thoughts. If you didn't enjoy the story, then that's fine. I'll accept constructive criticism. Thank you all once again, and see you next time.**

**The Alpha Gray Wolf.**


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